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PERSONAL 

COMPUTER 

WORLD 


GROUP  TESTS 


SLIMLINE  PCS 
170  STYLISH  SYSTEMS 

If  you  have  a  PC  in  your  living  room, 
the  last  thing  you  want  is  a  hulking 
great  beige  thing  dominating  one 
corner,  but  there  are  some  small, 
neat  and  stylish  systems  out  there 

186  HOW  WE  DID  THE  TESTS 

187  PERFORMANCE  RESULTS 
190  TABLE  OF  FEATURES 
193  EDITOR’S  CHOICE 


GRAPHICS  CARDS 
194  PIXEL  PERFECT 

Gamers  want  the  best  and  fastest 
graphics  cards,  so  we  put  14  of 
them  to  the  test  to  find  out  which 
offers  the  most  in  terms  of 
performance,  features  and  value 
for  money 

205  FSAA  EXPLAINED 

206  HOW  WE  DID  THE  TESTS 
208  PERFORMANCE  RESULTS 
210  TABLE  OF  FEATURES 
213  EDITOR’S  CHOICE 


WEB  IMAGE  EDITING 
218  INTERNET  IMAGE 

Getting  pictures  and  animations 
onto  a  website  needs  a  different  set 
of  skills  to  image-editing  for  paper, 
but  there  are  packages  to  help 

223  COMPRESSION  AND 
FILE  FORMATS 

226  SHAREWARE  AND  PLUG-INS 

233  TABLE  OF  FEATURES 

234  EDITOR’S  CHOICE 


HARDWARE 

72  PANRIX  MAGNUM  MAX  1G 

A  1GHz  PC  that  excels  in  all  areas 

73  MESH  MATRIX  1.1  GT  PRO 

The  fastest  machine  on  the  market 

74  SYSTEMAX  D700  RV  PRO 

Powerful  Duron  machine 

78  HI-GRADE  ULTIS  PV3  700A 

Well  built,  Celeron-sporting  system 

79  SONY  VAIO  PCG-Z600NE 

A  notebook  with  the  Sony  magic 

82  SONY  VAIO  PCG-SR1K 

Floppy-less  ultra-portable 

84  SAMSUNG  IZZI-PRO  SWIVEL 

Hefty CE  device 

86  DELL  INSPIRON  5000E 

Fast  SpeedStep  notebook 

87  IBM  I  SERIES  THINKPAD 

Budget  notebook 


PERIPHERALS 

92  HERCULES  3D  PROPHET  II  MX 

Punchy  value  graphics  card 

93  SONY  CYBER-SHOT  DSC-F505V 

A  digicam  for  pro  photographers 

96  CREATIVE  WEBCAM  GO  PLUS 

Super-specced  webcam 

SAMSUNG  SYNCMASTER  SM179MP 

LCD  monitor  with  TV  tuner 

98  PANASONIC  LF-D201  DVD-RAM 

A  DVD  drive  to  change  your  life 

lOI  POLAROID  SVGA  238 

Full-featured  projector 

NEC  MULTISYNC  VT540G 

Quality  projector 

103  MSI  K7T  PRO 

Duron-supporting  motherboard 

106  XEROX  DOCUPRINT  M750 

Budget  printer 

NEC  MULTISYNC  FP1370 

Great  CRT  monitor 


108  SEAGATE  CHEETAH  X15  ENTERPRISE 

Super  fast  hard  drive 

no  KYOCERA  FS-1000 

Eco-friendly  printer 

SOFTWARE 

118  MACROMEDIA  FLASH  5 

Web  animation  at  your  finger  tips 

120  MICROSOFT  VISIO  2000 

Versatile  diagramming  software 

123  MICROSOFT  AUTOROUTE  GB  2001 

Route-finding  package 

124  STEINBERG  CUBASE  VST  5.0 

Industry-standard  music  software 

129  WEB  TRAFFIC  MAXIMIZER 

Getting  your  site  on  search  engines 

BUSINESS 

130  RICOH  AFICIO  AP2100 

Work  horse  printer 

131  DELL  POWERAPP.WEB  100 

Lean,  pared-down  server 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


VI  TPT 

I 

|  1  L  H  a  I 

t 

\  %  K  I 

237  MONITORS 


In  the  second  of  our  new  16-page 
in-depth  section,  David  Fearon 
investigates  monitors.  He  charts 
their  progress  from  theearlydays, 
explains  CRT  and  LCD  technology, 
and  helps  you  get  the  best  out  of 
your  screen  in  three  workshops 


COMPETITION 


458  WIN  A  700MHZ  PANRIX  PC 

Looking  for  an  Athlon  PC?  Now's 
yourchanceto  win  onein  this 
month's  competition 


Esnnn 

136  3D  MODELLING  WORKSHOP 


Create  your  own  world  with  a  free 
copy  of  trueSpace  3/SE  on  this 
month's  cover  disc  and  three 
workshops  to  guideyou  through 
putting  scenes  together  and 
building  models 


146  X86  PROCESSORS 

All  you  wanted  to  know  about  chips 
and  more.  Gordon  Laing 
investigates  the  d  ifferent  processors 
availableand  explains  some  of  the 
terms  and  acronyms  behind  the 
technology 

156  MOBILE  COMMERCE 

Promises,  promises  promises... 
mobile  commerce  is  struggling  to 
live  up  to  the  hype 


164  THE  SENX  MACHINE 

Bringing  senses  to  your  PC 


167  TELEPORTATION 

Sciencefiction  no  longer 


14  TRUESPACE  3/SE  & 

TAXCALC  2000  LITE 

Thismonth'sCD-ROM  hasfull 
versions  of  trueSpace  3/SE,  a  3D 
modelling  package;  TaxCalc  2000 
Lite  to  help  you  fill  in  your  tax 
return;  M  YOB  6,  HoTMetaL  Pro  4, 
and  much  much  more 

DVD-ROM  COVER  DISC 

If  you've  picked  up  this  month's 
DVD-RO  M  issue,  turn  to  page  19  to 
find  out  what  extras  are  included. 
Each  month  onlya  limited  number 
of  issues  will  carry  a  DVD-ROM ,  so 
turn  to  page  10  for  details  of  how 
to  subscribe  to  this  special  edition 
or  buy  the  DVD-ROM  separately 


HANDS  ON 


257  CONTENTS 

258  QUESTION  TIME 

261  WORKSHOP:  WORD 

Using  templates  for  that  pro  look 

265  WINDOWS 

Times  are  achangin'  with  TouchPro 

268  WINDOWS  2000 

W  here's  the  I R  support  for  Palms? 

270  WINDOWS  NT 

Add  a  second  CPU  to  a  workstation 

272  UNIX 

XFceand  Linuxdesktops 

276  HARDWARE 

Overclocking  a  graphics  card 

280  OFFICE  APPLICATIONS 

Unformatted  text  and  scrolling  axes 

282  DATABASES 

I  nvestigati  ng  the  case  of  d  i  rty  d ata 

284  SOUND 

Changing  thetunein  Windows 

286  GRAPHICS  &  DTP 

Quark  tables  made  simple 

288  3D  GRAPHICS 

Skinning  a  3D  object 

291  VISUAL  PROGRAMMING 

M  icrosoft's  .N  ET  Framework 

294  WEB  DEVELOPMENT 

A  sneak  preview  of  ASP+ 

297  ECOMMERCE 

'Pro'  webshops  drive  us  wild 

299  pda 

A  helping  handheld  for  refugees 

303  NETWORKS 

Installing  SAN -ity  to  your  system 


25  DIAL-UP  TRIALS 


Dial-up  chaos  signposts  ADSL; 
DVD-RAM  to  thefore;  Windows 
M  E  launches  amid  new  email 
security  scare;  Special  report  on 
mobile  screens  and  processors 

BMEnnmsnim 

452  PREVIEWS 

453  GAMES 

DeusEx,  Grand  Prix 3,  Motocross 
Madness 2,  Dino  Crisis 

457  BRAINTEASERS  AND  CROSSWORD 

459  FLASHBACK 

460  RETRO 

The  Acorn  Atom 


EDITORIAL 

10  CONTACT  US 

11  INDEX  OF  ADVERTISERS 
57  INSIDE  INFORMATION 

59  STRAIGHT  TALKING 

60  BUSINESS  MATTERS 

62  404  NOT  FOUND 

66  LETTERS 

133  BEST  BUYS 
306  READER  OFFERS 
437  MICROMART 

451  BUYING  ADVICE  & 
BUYERS’  CHARTER 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000 


As  long  as  there's  healthy  competition,  the  future  of  the  virtual  3D  market  should  be  groundbreaking 

Thethird  dimension 


If  you  read  thegraphics  card 
group  test  in  this  month's  issue 
(pl94),  you'll  find  that  thenext 
generation  of  3D  accelerators 
arewell  and  truly  with  us, 
producing  the  kind  of  images 
that  you  would  haveneeded  a 
C  ray  su  percomputer  for  not  too 
many  years  ago.  It  seems  as  if  theracefortheultimate 
graphics  solution  isgetting  as  cut-throat  as  theracefor 
thefastestCPU. 

With  nVidia  selling  its  GeForce2  GTS  chip  to  just 
about  every  potential  graphics  board  manufacturer,  it's 
hard  to  imaginethat  it  won't  becomethemost  prevalent 
graphics  chipset  in  themarket.Obviouslythere'sstill 
competition  from  the  I  i  kes  of  ATi ,  Matrox  and  3dfx,  but 
themarket  has  shrunk  substantiallyoverthepast  couple 
of  years.  It  wasn't  too  long  ago  that  you  would  have  seen 
graphics  chips  from  S3,  Cirrus  Logic,  Number  9,  Tseng, 
Rendition,  and  Trident  in  agraphicscard  grouptest. 
Most  of  these  used  to  work  in  thesame  way  as  nVidia, 
producingchipsetsand  sellingthem  to  board 
manufacturers,  but  now  they're  rarely  heard  of. 

With  graphics  cards  there's  generally  one 
winner  and  lots  of  losers.  S3  was  big  back  in 
thelate486  days  when  it  released  theVision 
968  chipset,  which  wipedthefloorwith  every 
other  graphics  card  on  themarket.  Sadly  for 
S3,  however,  it  wasn't  long  before  Matrox  changed  the 
faceof  thegraphics  card  market  forever  with  therelease 
of  theMillennium.Thiswasan  incredibly  fast  and  well- 
featured  card  that  was  second  to  noneat  thetime,  but  it 
wasn't  until  3D  graphics  becamean  issuethat  things 
started  to  get  real  I  y  i  nteresti  n  g. 

Theinitial  crop  of  3D  accelerators  werenothingto 
writehomeaboutand  it  wasn't  until  3dfx  released  its 
Voodoo  board  that  3D  games  started  to  come  i  nto  thei  r 
own.  3dfx  followed  theVoodoo  with  theVoodoo2  and 
every  graphics  card  manufacturer  worth  its  salt  produced 
boards  based  on  that.  Theproblem  with  theVoodoo 
boards  was  that  they  were  add-on  cards  that  still  needed  a 
standard  graphics  card  to  run  2D  applications. 

Eventuallyall  themajorcard  manufacturers  realised 
that  thefutureof  PC  graphics  was  3D,  and  the  race  to 
producethede  facto  3D  graphics  chip  began.  Duringthis 
timewesaw  3dfxbuySTB  and  start  to  produceitsown 


cards  rather  than  selling  its  bare  chips.  S3  applied  a 
similar  model  buying  D  iamond.  Unfortunately  S3  was 
unableto  produceagroundbreakinggraphics chipset  in 
its  new  guise  and  has  faded  intothebackground, 
although  it'sstill  producing  decent  mobile3D  chipsets. 

Even  though  nVidia  is  probablythe  biggest  name  in 
3D  graphics  at  the  moment  it's  also  the  newest.  When 
nVidia  released  theTNT  andTNT2  chipsets  it  shifted  the 
balance  in  themarket,  but  when  it  released  thefirst 
GeForce256  chip  it  redefined  it.  Eversincethen  theother 
manufacturers  have  been  playing  catch-up,  and  it'sonly 
ATi  that  hasfinallycomeup  with  an  equally  excel  lent 
product. Theamazing  thing  about  nVidia  isthat  it  had 
already  superseded  theGeForce256  with  theGeForce2 
GTS  beforeany  competition  started  to  rear  its  head.  It's 
therefore  hard  to  believethat  nVidia  doesn't  already  have 
its  next  tru  mp  card  u  p  its  si  eeve. 

Of  course,  nVidiadoeshaveotherthingson  itsmind 
with  the  release  of  theM  icrosoft  X-Box  drawing  ever 
closer.  Rather  than  fearingthereleaseof  thenew  console 
as  competition  to  its  PC  gaming  cards,  nVidia  is 


Major  card  manufacturers  realised  the  FUTURE 
OF  PC  GRAPHICS  WAS  3D  and  the  race  to 
produce  the  de  facto  graphics  chip  began 


producing  thegraphics  solution  for  M  icrosoft's  new 
baby.  This  is  another  shrewd  movethat  will  no  doubt  net 
thecompany  a  tidy  profit  as  well  as  much  kudos. 

Whether  theM  icrosoft  deal  will  help  makenVidiathe 
dominant  player  in  3D  graphics  remains  to  be  seen, 
although  it'sworth  remembering  that  ATi  isstill  the 
number  onesupplier  of  graphics  chips  in  theworld  and 
it's  not  likely  to  let  go  without  afight.  That  said,  much  of 
AT i 's  market  share  i s  i n  the  bu si n ess  i  ntegrated  graph i cs 
arena,  whereas  nVidia  has  concentrated  on  thehigh-end 
market  that  yields  high-profilebut  lower  market  share. 

Ultimately,  nVidia  has  pushed  the  boundaries  of  3D 
graphics  further  than  ever  beforeand  shaken  up  what's 
left  of  thecompetition  to  do  thesame.  As  long  as  the 
market  remains  healthy  with  somesemblanceof 
competition,  we  should  continueto  enjoy  ground¬ 
breaking  developments  in 


thevirtual  3D  world. 


Riyad  Emeran,  Editor 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


PERSONAL 

COMPUTER 

WORLD 

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Tel  020  7316  9315  Fax  020  7316  9313  www.pcw.vnunet.com 

Riyad  Emeran  Editor,  riyad_emeran@vnu.co.uk 

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|1  •  Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000 


Index  of  advertisers 


1  ADVERTISER 

TELEPHONE 

PAGE 

Ace  Quotes* 

see  advert 

180-181 

Acer 

see  advert 

148-149 

AJP 

020  8208  9755 

174-175 

Amazon 

see  advert 

8 

AO  pen 

see  advert 

29 

r 

see  advert 

75 

Buy.com 

see  advert 

104-105 

c 

Cambridge  ISDN 

01223  495929 

166 

Carrera 

020  8307  2900 

183, 185 

Compaq* 

0990  232425 

132-133 

Connect  25 

see  advert 

130 

Corel 

see  advert 

36 

Crucial  Technology 

0800  013  0330 

161 

Dabs  Direct* 

0800  674467 

308,  309-324 

Dakota  Computer 
Solutions 

020  8452  8400 

122 

Dan  Technology 

020  8830  1100 

21-23 

Dell 

01344  724872 

IFC-5,  49-55,  94- 
95,178-179,264 

E 

Elonex 

0500  524  444 

97,99,229 

Epson 

0800  220546 

144-145 

G 

Gateway  2000 

see  advert 

12-13,  76-77 

Grey  Matter 

01364  654  100 

305 

H 

Hansol 

01252  360400 

255 

Hewlett-Packard 

0990  474747 

38-39 

Hi-Grade  Computers 

020  8532  6123 

80-81,  83,  85 

IBM* 

see  advert 

100-101 

liyama 

see  advert 

248 

Just  Projectors 

see  advert 

129 

K 

Keyzone 

020  8900  1525 

11,  44,  45 

|  ADVERTISER 

TELEPHONE 

PAGE 

Lapland 

Leonardo  Computer 

01256  867  700 

154-155 

Systems 

0118  9269400 

301 

Line  One 

see  advert 

56 

Logitech 

020  8308  6582 

121 

M 

M  atrox 

01753  665544 

69 

M  esh  Computers 

020  8208  4706 

31-35,43,236 

Moonfruit 

see  advert 

58 

M  usicM  aker 

see  advert 

256 

Panrix 

0113  244  4958 

188-189 

QDI  Computers 

01753  554  004 

18 

s 

Sage 

0800  447777 

165 

Seiko 

see  advert 

109 

Silicon  River 

see  advert 

293 

Simply  Computers* 

020  8523  4002 

341-356 

SmartCertify 

0800  279  2009 

290 

Software  Warehouse* 

01675  466  467 

373-436 

Sony 

see  advert 

63 

Sony 

see  advert 

168-169 

Taxan 

01344  484646 

247 

Technomatic* 

0990  559944 

325-340 

Time 

01282  777111 

111-117, 125-127, 
162-163,214-217, 
231,235,275 

Tiny  Computers 

01293  821333 

88-91, 107 

u 

Unwired  Solutions 

see  advert 

301 

V 

Viglen 

020  8758  7000 

OBC 

w 

Watford  Electronics* 

0800  035  5555 

357-372 

Westlakes 

020  8902  2392 

279 

Xerox 

see  advert 

41,  64-65 

*  Inserted  cards,  catalogues,  pre-printed  adverts  and  sections 


Personal  Com puter  World  • 


October  2000 


WELCOME  TO  THE  OCTOBER  2000  PERSONAL  COMPUTER  WORLD  COVER  DISCS 

October  COVER  DISCS 


GAMES  f  [library  ENTERTAINMENT  INTERNET 


elcome  to  the  0  ctober  Personal  C omputer  W  oriel 
cover  disc.  This  month's  line-up  includes  one  of  the 
world's  favourite  3D  modelling  and  animation  packages  - 
trueSpace  3/  SE.  For  small  businesses,  there's  a  full  and 
unrestricted  copy  of  the  award-winning  M  YO  B  (M  ind  Your 
0  wn  Business)  Accounts  version  6.  You'll  also  find  the 
brand  newTaxCalc  2000  Lite  from  Which?,  an  invaluable 
helping  hand  for  those  who  need  to  send  in  a  Self 


Assessment  tax  return.  There's  also  one  of  the  best-known 
web  authoring  packages,  HoTMetaL  Pro  v4,  which  comes 
complete  with  a  great  set  of  web  utilities  for  creating  Java 
applets,  animated  gifs  and  much  more.  And  if  you  want  to 
give  your  PC  a  health  check,  C  hecklt  5  will  do  just  that. 
There  are  other  great  programs  too,  including  M  icrosoft's 
brand  new  Internet  Explorer  v5.5,  and  much  more. 

For  help  on  using  the  PC  W  cover  disc  please  see  page  16. 


trueSpace  3/SE 


3D  tools  for  creative  minds 

O  ne  of  the  most  intuitive  3D 
modelling  and  animation  tools 
availablefor  Windows,  trueSpace 
3/SE  lets  you  create  whatever  your 
mind's  eye  can  visualise. 

N  ew  features  in  version  3  give 
you  unprecedented  power  and 
control,  all  seamlessly  integrated  in 
the  design  environment.  trueSpace 
3/SE  gives  you  the  too  Is  to  create 
3D  characters  and  worlds  your  way, 
faster  and  easier. 

Check  out  this  month's 
workshop  on  page  136,  where  David 
Fearon  takes  you  step  by  step  through 
putting  together  scenes  and  building 
models  with  trueSpace  3/SE. 


Character  building: 
create  your  own 
animated  world 


Upgrade  to  even  more  power  in  trueSpace  4 


The  latest  in  Caligari's  flagship  line  of  trueSpace  products  is  trueSpace  4. 

Users  love  it.  The  press  loves  it.  You  can  love  it  too  -  for  an  amazing 
low  price  available  only  to  Personal  Computer  World  readers. 

trueSpace4  has  all  the  new  features  introduced  in  trueSpace  3,  plus 
new  high-end  features  like  Bones,  NURBS, 

Function  Curves  and  Scripting.  A  brand  new 
hybrid  renderer  allows  you  to  create  the  ultimate 
in  realism.  The  Tenderer  alone  is  worth  as  much 


price,  considering  its  top-end  features  and  third-party 
plug-ins.' 

Now  you  can  have  your  own  copy  of  trueSpace4  -  for  a  price  that 
will  amaze  you! 

If  creating  was  a  breeze  with  trueSpace  3/SE,  we  promise  that  the 
capabilities  of  trueSpace  4  will  blow  you  away.  Plus,  it  comes  with 
Caligari's  unconditional  guarantee:  if  it  doesn't  revolutionise  the 
way  you  work  with  3D  graphics,  simply  return  it  within  30  days  for 
a  full  refund. 

You  can  have  all  this  power  for  only  £245!  (£295  inc  VAT  and 
delivery). 

To  order,  contact  Caligari  on  tel:  01752  895  100, 
fax:  01752  894  833  or  ttps://forms.caligari.com/store/uk/pcw. 

Please  quote  Code  009CU  WO  Rl. 

Remember,  this  offer  is  available  only  to  Personal  Computer 
World  readers! 

What  are  you  waiting  for?  Order  by  31  October  2000. 


FULL  VERSION 


as  the  full  version  of  trueSpace  4,  and  we  are 
offering  it  to  you  for  a  low  upgrade  price! 

The  Washington  Post  (July  1999)  said  that: 
'trueSpace  4  costs  far  less  than  H  ollywood-style 
3D  software  but  still  has  amazing  powers.  Once 
mastered,  trueSpace  4  is  an  invaluable  resource 
for  the  designer  and  the  animator.' 

TV  Technology  commented  that  trueSpace  4 
'should  sell  for  several  times  its  $595  (£372) 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


TaxCalc  2000  Lite_ full  version* 


Ur  riJ  M4Jf 
■  . . .. 

□a 

per  cent  of  incorrect 
tax  calculations  by 
the  Inland  Revenue, 
you  could  use  TaxCalc 
2000  Lite  to  make 
sure  you're  paying  the 
right  amount  of  tax 


Which?  Software,  publisher  of  the  best¬ 
selling  TaxCalc  2000  personal  tax  program, 
has  launched  TaxCalc  2000  Lite.  This 
enables  taxpayers  filling  out  basic  Self 
Assessment  forms  to  complete  their  tax 
returnsquicklyand  accurately,  without 
making  any  potentially  costly  mistakes. 
Since  filling  out  a  Self  Assessment  Return  is 
even  more  complex  this  year  (with  a 
calculation  sheet  running  to  29  pages, 
rather  than  an  average  of  five  pages  in 
1999) ,  it  makes  sense  to  get  some 
independent  help  to  make  sure  that  you're 
not  paying  too  much  tax. 

Covering  the  requirements  of  most  tax 
payers  required  to  submit  an  annual  return, 
this  great  new  software  package  is  filled 
with  features  that  will  make  completing 
this  year's  tax  return  easier  than  ever. 

Once  you've  completed  your  return, 
TaxCalc  Lite  will  also  enableyou  to 
either  print  out  a  tax  return  document, 
or  to  use  the  online  filing  system  to  send 
back  your  return  directly  to  the  Inland 
Revenueover  the  Internet.  The  Revenue 
launched  this  service  at  the  beginning  of 
July,  and  if  you  use  it  to  send  back  your 
return  and  payyourtaxbill  electronically, 
you  can  claim  a  £10  taxdiscount. 

Even  if  you  ha  veal  ready  submitted  your 
return  or  used  an  accountant  to  do  it,  the 
TaxCalc  Lite  program  will  allow  98  per  cent 
of  Self  Assessment  taxpayers  to  check  the 
Inland  Revenue's  (or  your  accountant's) 
calculations.  The  Revenue's  publicised 
accuracy  level  currently  stands  at  77  per 
cent,  meaning  that  almost  one  in  four 
could  be  wrong,  so  almost  a  quarter  of 
taxpayers  could  potentially  save  money  off 
their  tax  bills. 

Also  included  ontheCD  isa 
comprehensive  user  manual  in  Adobe 
Acrobat  format  (the  reader  can  be  installed 
fromthedisc);  plus 30  useful  Inland 
Revenue  booklets  and  leaflets  to  help  you 
with  your  tax  matters. 

The  Inland  Revenue  leaflets  (Adobe 
Acrobat  Reader  required)  include: 

SA/BK8  -  Self  Assessment.  Yourguide 
CGT1  -  Capital  GainsTax.  An  introduction 


CW  LI  -  Starting  your  own  business? 

CWL2  -  N I  Contributions  for  self-employed 
people 

IR87-  Letting  and  your  home 
IR110-  A  guidefor  people  with  savings 
IR120-  You  and  the  Inland  Revenue 
IR121-  Incometaxand  pensioners 
IR125-  Using  your  own  car  for  work 
IR145  -  Low  interest  loans  provided  by 
employers 

IR161  -  Taxrelief  for  employees'  business 
travel 

IR172-  Incometaxand  companycars 

Inland  Revenue  help  sheets  include: 

IR203-  Car  benefits  and  car  fuel  benefits 
IR204-  Lump  sums  and  compensation 
payments 

IR206-  Capital  allowances  for  employees 
and  officeholders 
IR208-  Payslipsand  coding  notices 

IR211  -  Employment  -  residence 
and  domicile  issues 
IR222  -  Howto  calculate  your 
taxable  profits 
IR227- Losses 

IR229-  Information  from  your 
accounts 

IR281  -  H  usband  and  wife, 

divorce  and  separation 
IR283-  Private  residence  relief 

H  elp  for  small-business  expenses 


IR284-  Shares  and  Capital  GainsTax 
IR285  -  Share  reorganisations,  company 
takeovers  and  Capital  GainsTax 
IR289-  Retirement  relief  and  Capital 
GainsTax 

IR300-  Non-residents  and  investment 
income 

IR320-  Gains  on  UK  life  insurance  policies 

Inland  Revenue  notes  include: 

SA103  -  Notes  on  self-employment 
SA108  -  N  otes  on  capital  gains 
SA109  -  N  otes  on  non-residence 


TaxCalc  versions 

•  TaxCalc  2000  Lite  covers  only  thefollowing 
schedules: 

•  TheSA  100  (the  eight-page  core  Return) 

•  Employment  supplementary  pages 

•  Self-employment  supplementary  pages 

•  Share  schemes  supplementary  pages 

You  will  need  to  upgrade  to  TaxCalc  Standard 
if  your  income  involves: 

•  Partnerships 

•  Land  and  property 

•  Foreign  income 
Trusts 

•  Capital  gains 

•  Non-residence 

See  cover  disc  for  details  on  howto  upgradefrom 
TaxCalc  2000  Lite  to  the  Standard  version. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


>  1  » 


v^i 

'  PtIIV  a  / 1 


ip* 


4 


rrJi 


V. 


GAMES 


APPLICATIONS 


LIBRARY  ENTERTAINMENT  INTERNET 


MYOB  version  6 


FULL  VERSION 


MYOB  (M  ind  YourOwn  Business)  is  the 
world's  leading  accounting  and  financial 
management  package  for  small  businesses. 

Thousands  of  growing  businesses,  from 
florists  to  advertising  agencies,  are  now 
experiencing  the  many  benefits  of  using 
M  YO  B  and  entrusting  the  mechanics  of 
their  cashflow,  budget  analysis  and  VAT  to 
this  superb  software  solution.  MYOB  is 
packed  with  features  and  it's  easy  to  use. 

I  n  our  August  group  test  covering 
accountancy  software  M  YO  B  received  a 
Highly  Commended  award.  The  package  is 
easy  to  set  up  and  use.  After  you've  loaded 
up,  the  Command  Centre  gives  you  access  to 
the  software's  main  functions.  Entering 
transactions  is  straightforward,  for  example 
paying  a  supplier  is  just  a  case  of  writing  an 
on-screen  cheque-  and  whileyou  arefilling 
outthechequeyou  can  create  new  suppliers. 

Creating  invoices  is  similarly  clear  and 
straightforward  and  they  can  be  batched 
readyfor  printing.  The  reporting  function  is 
excellent,  with  M  YO  B  ableto  export  reports 
asa  web  pageand  OfficeLink  software 
allows  you  to  pipe  reports  to  M  icrosoft 
Excel.  Word  and  WordPerfect  can  also  be 
used  for  word-processing  functions. 

The  customer  and  supplier  databases 
enableyouto  keep  records  of  invoices  as 
well  as  attach  notes  about  conversations. 

M  YOB's features  include: 

•  Nominal  ledger 

•  Chequebook 

•  Flexible  invoicing 

•  Records  and  analyses  sales 

•  T racking  debtors  and  identifying  slow 
payers 


It's  easy  to  keep 
track  o  f  all  your 
finances  with 
MYOB  6 


•  Automatically  creates  and  tracks 
purchase  orders 

•  Records  creditors  and  reminds  of 
expiring  discounts 

•  H  andles  quotes  and  estimates 

•  Flexible  stock  management 

•  Comprehensivefinancial  and 
management  reporting 

•  Report  customiser 

•  Job  management 

•  Electronic  card  file  with  contact 
management 

•  Custom  forms  designer 

•  To  do' list 


•  I  nteracti ve  cash  f  lo w  fo r ' W  hat  If?' 
analysis 

•  OfficeLink/ Script/ Link 

•  VAT  reports 

•  Clear  bank  account  reconciliation 


Special  offer 

Personal  Computer  1/1/ orld  readers  can  upgrade 
to  the  latest  version 
ofM.Y.O.B.ataspecial 
discount  price  (a 
saving  of  £100).  You 
can  find  detailsofthe 
special  upgrade  offer 
ontheCD. 


Using  the  cover  disc 


ThePCI/l/  cover  disc  uses  a  web-browser-style 
interface.  As  well  as  cutting  the  time  needed  for 
development,  content  designed  forthe  web  can  be 
easily  ported  to  thedisc  (and  vice  versa). 

Compatibility  issues  are  reduced  as  your 
browser  has  been  installed  to  work  on  your 
individual  PC.  However,  to  get  full  functionality 
from  it,  you  will  need  to  use  M  icrosoft  Internet 
Explorer  (version  4  or  later).  This  is  because  we  use 
a  special  ActiveX  plug-in  that  allows  usto  install 
software  directly  from  the  browser,  without  all  the 
normal  options,  dialogs  and  security  warnings. 

U  nfortunately,  N etscape doesn't  properly 
support  this  software.  Fornon-M  icrosoft  users, 
we've  included  a  small  installer  that  will  run  when 
you  insert  thedisc,  or  when  you  run  the  program 
PCW.EXEintherootofthedisc.  Of  course,  you 
can  still  launch  the  main  browser  to  read  all  about 
thesoftwareon  this  month's  disc. 


IMPORTANT 

Please  notethat  we  cannot  give  support  on 
individual  programs  contained  on  this  disc. 

If  you  have  problems  running  thedisc  or  any 
of  its  content,  please  follow  these  guidelines: 

•  Faultydisc  (ie,  thedisc  is physicallydamaged  and 
will  not  load)  -  return  thedisc  fora  replacement  to: 
PCW  October  cover  disc,  TIB  pic,  HelpLine  Returns, 
Unit  5,  Triangle  Business  Park,  Pentrebach,  M  erthyr 
Tydfill,  M  id  Glamorgan  CF484YB,  quoting  ref 
'PCW  Vol  23  No  10' 

•You  have  problems  installing/ running  the 
software.  CheckthesupportpageontheCD,  orthe 
supportwebsiteatwww.pcw.vnunet.com/cd.You 

should  also  check  the  manufacturer's  website 

•  For  general  difficulties  call  01685  354726 

•  If  you're  still  stuck,  drop  usan  email  at 
pcwcd@vnu.co.uk- we  may  be  ableto  help. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


HoTMetaL  Pro  4  FULL  VERSION 


A  imtech's Jamba  PE  is  an  added  extra 


Important 

HoTMetaL  Pro  4  (DVD  users  only) 

You  may  experience  problems  installing 
HoTMetaLdirectlyfromtheDVD  (if  you 
see  an  error  message  'Cannot  find 
C:\Windows\conagent.exe').  You  can 
get  round  this  byfirst  copying  the 
installation  folder  to  your  hard  disk,: 
Drag  (copy)  the\software\hotmetal\ 
folder  from  the  DVD  onto  your 
Windows  desktop.  Open  thefolderand 
double-click  thefile  setup.exe  (DON'T 
run  it  from  the  W  indows  Start  button) . 
The  installation  folder  is  quite  large 
(380M  B),  so  you  will  need  sufficient  disk 
space.  However,  you  can  delete  the 
folder  immediately  after  installation. 


Competition  and  upgrade  offer 


Howto  register 

Before  you  can  start  exploring  the  powerful 
features  of  HoTM  etal  Pro  4,  you  must 
register  your  software  at  www.hotmetalpro. 
com/ register/ special.htm .  You  will  need  to 
quote thefollowing  12-digit  product  ID 
number:  233040335001.  (If  you 're  ready 
to,  you  can  also  upgrade  to  version  6  at  this 
site- there's  a  link  on  the  disc.) 

Installing  HoTMetaL 

To  Install  HoTM  etal  Pro  4  ,  shutdown  all 
applications  (including  the  disc's  browser). 
Next,  start  the  INSTALLATION  WIZARD, 
by  launching  the  file:  [CD  :]\  Software\ 

H  oTM  eTaL\  Setup.exe 

NOTE:  the  HoTMetaL  Power  Tools 
installer  can  also  be  found  in  this  folder. 

Once  the  Installation  Wizard  has  start¬ 
ed,  follow  the  on-screen  instructions. 

N  ote  that  H  oTM  etaL  Pro  4  comes  with 
some  useful  extra  programs,  including: 

•  Ulead  Photoimpact  Special  Edition 

•  Ulead  GIF  Animator  1.5  Full  Version 

•  Ulead  WebExtensions 

•  Ulead  SmartSaver  2.0  Full  Version 

•  Aimtech  Jamba  PE 

•  Platinum  VRCreator,  and 

•  Acadia  Infuse  Scriptbuilder 

NOTE:  Skip  installation  of  Internet 
Explorer.  There's  a  copy  of  the  latest  version 
of  I  nternet  Explorer  elsewhere  on  this  d  isc. 
Thesameappliesto  AdobeAcrobat  Reader. 


SoftQuad's  powerful  software  has  been  at 
the  forefront  of  web  authoring  for  many 
years.  Version  4  introduces  a  new  Wysiwyg 
user  interface  that's  designed  to  be  as 
accessible  to  newer  web  developers  as 
well  as  to  professionals.  HoTMetaL 
produces  code  that  conforms  tightly  to 
the  standards,  while  offering  support  for 
a  wide  range  of  technologies,  including 
ActiveX,  Java,  dynamic  HTM  L  and 
cascading  stylesheets. 

You  will  need  to  visit  SoftQuad's  spe¬ 
cial  PCW  web  page  to  register  your  copy  of 
H  oTM  etaL  Pro  4.  Registration  is  free  and 
will  only  take  a  few  minutes  of  your  time. 


As  well  asthefull  and  unrestricted  version  4,  we've 
included  a  fullyfunctional  trial  version  of  the  latest 
H  oTM  etalLPro  6  that  you  can  use  for  30  days. 

H  ere  are  just  some  of  the  new  features  in  version  6: 

•  Improved  sourceeditingand  authoring  aids 

•  Enhanced  FTP  and  remote  file-editing  features 

•  Improved  asset  manager 

•  Comprehensive  extensibility  and  customisation 

•  Comes  with  more  than  8,000  images  in  the  Asset 
Library,  WS_ FTP  Pro  6.02  full  version,  and  HTM  L 
^JavaScript  self-studytraining  tools 

Answer  thefollowing  three  questions  and  you 
could  WIN  oneofthreecopiesof  HoTMetaL  Pro  6 
for  FREE: 

1.  Who  publishes  HoTMetaL  Pro? 

2.  Which  image  editor  is  included  with  HoTMetaL 
Pro  6? 

3.  What  does  CSS  stand  for? 

Send  your  entries  to: 

HoTMetaL  competition, 
c/o  Personal  Computer  World, 

32-34  Broadwick  Street,  London  W1A  2H  G 


PCW  October  2000  HoTMetaL  Pro  6  competition  entry  form 

Name: 

Email  address: 

Daytime  telephone  number: 

Address: 


1.  HoTMetaL  Pro  is  published  by: . 

2.  The  image  editor  included  with  HoTMetaL  Pro  6  is: . 

3.  CSS  stands  for: . 

•P  lease  tick  here  if  you  DO  NOT  want  to  receive  information  about  other  products  and 

services  from  VNU  B  usiness P ublications Ltd  □ 

•P  lease  tick  here  if  you  D  O  want  your  details  to  be  passed  on  to  other 

carefully  selected  companies  for  marketing  purposes  □ 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


l  hC^  A.  YfllA  .  h\\  i  \Mii  >V  ^W'TkJIf 

F&n  r  i v _  *.  sgT^r^  *  -v1^  * 


GAMES 


iwIM 


LIBRARY  ENTERTAINMENT  INTERNET 


Checklt...  IE5.5...  Media  Player...  DisplayMate... 


Checklt  5 

Thefull  version  of  Checklt  5  will  test  your 
hardware,  discover  any  hidden  conflicts  and 
report  detailed  system  information. 

Checklt  is  a  powerful  32bit  W  indows 
diagnostic  utility.  It  helps  you  pinpoint 
problems,  test  system  components,  locate 
system  conflicts,  and  restore  Windows' 
Registry  and  system  files. 


Thefirsttimeit  runs,  Checklt  performs  a 
multi-step  collection  process  that  gathers 
hardware  configuration  information  and 
performance  data.  The  Snapshot  is  a  way  of 
recording  this  information  for  use  in  future 
comparisons.  In  future,  when  the  software 
checks  out  your  system,  if  you  get  anything 
less  than  asmileyface,  you've  probably  got 


cause  for  concern.  Checklt  will  then  help 
you  to  try  and  identify  what's  preventing 
your  PC  from  working  at  100  per  cent 
efficiency.  And  if  you  just  want  to  see  how 
fast  the  various  bits  of  your  system  can  go, 
Checklt  includes  benchmarking. 

Internet  Explorer  5.5 

The  newest  version  of  Internet  Explorer 
includes  improved  support  for  DHTM  Land 
CSS,  giving  web  architects  greater  control 
over  browser  appearance  and  behaviour. 
You'll  also  enjoy  the  ability  to  preview  web 
pages  as  they'll  appear  when  printed.  Web 
architects  will  appreciate  the  greater  control 
over  browser  appearance  and  behaviour, 
including  enhanced  frames,  element 
behaviours,  vertical  text  layout  and  more. 

NOTE:  M  icrosoft  will  not  provide 
support  on  this  installation. 

W  indows  M  edia  Player  7 

M  icrosoft's  brand  new  Windows  Media 
Player  7  (pictured  top  right)  comprises  seven 
features  in  a  singleapplication:  CD  player, 
audio  and  video  player,  media  jukebox, 
media  guide,  Internet  radio,  portable  device 
musicfiletransfer,  and  an  audio  CD  burner. 
These  software  programs  are  combined  into 
one  easy-to-use  application. 

NOTE:  Media  Player  should  NOT  be 


used  on  computers  running  W  indows  95  or 
NT4.  M  icrosoft  will  not  providesupporton 
this  installation. 

DisplayMate  (demo  edition) 

Tuneup  software  for  your  monitor. 
DisplayM  ate  will  help  optimise  your 
monitor  to  deliver  the  best  possible  image 
and  picturequality.  It  guides  you  step  by 
step  through  setting  up  and  tuning  all  of  the 
parameters,  controls,  and  adjustments  of 
thedisplayand  its  adaptor.  If  you  wish  you 
can  copy  D  isplaymate  to  your  hard  d isk  ( it's 
in  the\Software\  Essentials  folder)  or  run  it 
directly  from  the  CD. 

See  also  this  month's  pcwexpert  on 
monitors  (page  237).  David  Fearon 
explains  how  to  set  up  your  monitor  with 
DisplayM  ate. 


What's  on  the  DVD 


The  programs  referred  to  below  can  all  be 
found  on  the  DVD  edition  of  Personal 
Computer  World,  available  every  month  from 
main  newsagents  or  by  subscription.  You'll 
find  details  in  the  Subscription  section  of 
theCD. 

The  DVD  includes  everything  on  the 
CD-ROM ,  plus  all  these  great  full-version 
packages  described  below,  sixmonths 
worth  of  PCW  group  tests,  and  the  new 
Essentials  section  packed  with  more  than 
50  utilities,  add-ins  and  demos.  Finally, 
there's  a  selection  of  nine  of  the  best 
playablegamesdemos. 

Sun  StarOffice  version  5.2 

Building  on  a  history  of  15  years  of 
continuous  innovation,  StarOffice  5.2 


incorporates  more  than  200  new  or 
enhanced  features.  And,  uni  ike  some  office 
suites,  StarOffice  5.2  can  be  used  on  just 


StarO  ffice  is  a  complete  office  suite 


about  any  O  S.  You  get  instant  access  to 
open,  modify  and  even  save  as  M  icrosoft 
Office  files. 

StarOffice  5.2  includes  a  rich  set  of 
productivity  tools  from  spreadsheet  to  word 
processor,  presentation  graphics,  drawing, 
image  editing,  HTM  Leditorand  database, 
plus  email,  newsreader,  and  scheduling  and 
task  management  tools. 

Best  of  all,  StarOffice  5.2  isfree. 

Sun's  powerful,  cross- platform  suite 
delivers  seamless  access  to  a  variety  of  office 
productivity  applications  freeof  charge.  A 
global,  fully-featured  suite,  StarOffice 5.2 
integrates  the  toolsthat  today's  businesses 
need  to  effectively createdynamic and 
professional  documents,  exchangefiles 
with  M  icrosoft  Office,  and  surf  the  Internet. 


1 _ 1 

PCW  COVER  DISCS  BROUGHT 
TO  YOU  IN  ASSOCIATION  WITH: 

LINEONE 

Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


?>'«  i4  V? r  >  //  i 


•h 


l  \ 


GAMES 


APPLICATIONS 


LIBRARY  ENTERTAINMENT  INTERNET 


What's  on  the  DVD 


0  n  the  DVD  you'll  find  the  latest 
version  of  StarO  ff  ice  for  Windows 
(95/98/NT);  Linux;  and  Solaris  (Intel). 

NOTE:  During  our  tests  we  came  across 
so  me  script  problems  with  Schedule  Server 
installation  supplied  to  usfrom  Sun  M  icro- 
systemsthat  wewereunableto  resolve.  We 
will  includean  update  on  next  mo  nth's  disc. 

Full  instructionsfor  installing  H  oTM  etaL 
Pro  4  from  the  DVD  areonpl7. 

SoftKey  Key  Photos 

Key  Photos  is  a  collection  of  2,100  royalty- 
free  photos  in  88  categories,  covering 
everything  from  agriculture  to  wolves,  and 
from  office  buildings  to  transport. 

You  can  browse  the  photos  with  Power- 
Album,  which  allows  you  to  add  yourown 
images  and  searchable  descriptions.  Click 
M  0  RE  to  view  the  PowerAlbum  manual 
(you'll  need  Acrobat  Reader),  or  IN  STALL 
to  copy  PowerAlbum  to  your  hard  disk. 


SoftKey  allows  easy  browsing  of  photos 

Linux  Special 

Here's  your  chance  to  check  out  three 
complete  Linux  installations,  from 
M  and  rake,  Phat  and  Armed. 

Linux  Mandrake 7.1 

This  latest  version  of  Linux  M  andrake  is  a 
complete,  preconfigured  graphical  Linux 
operating  system.  It's  easy  to  install,  easy  to 
use  and  stable.  The  graphical  interfaces 
KDE, Gnome,  AfterStep,  W  indow  M  aker, 
IceWM  and  so  on  are  fully  integrated,  fully 
compatible  with  Red  Hat  applications. 

NOTE:  We've  provided  Linux  M  andrake 
as  two  ISO  9660  imagefiles  that  you  must 
burn  onto  two  CD-Rs  in  order  to  install  (so 
you'll  need  a  CD-R  burner).  We've  included 
instructions  on  howto  do  thisonthedisc. 

Armed  Linux  Beta  1.1 

A  Linux  workstation  OS  that  installs  under 
M  icrosoft  W indows 95  or  98.  Armed  Linux 
is  for  first-time  users  and  people  who  need 
Linuxas  a  secondary  operating  system. 

Phat  Linux  v3. 2 

This  has  a  W  indows-based  install,  so  you 


L  inux  M  andrake  7.1  is  very  easy  to  use 


don't  need  to  repartition  your  hard  drive.  It 
comes  bundled  with  X-W indows,  KDE, 
Gnome,  Enlightenment,  theApache Web 
Server,  a  DOSemulator,  sound  programs, 
image  editors  and  more. 

NOTE:  Wecannotsupportthis 
software  in  anyway,  and  we  strongly 
recommend  that  you  research  each  onefully 
before  installing,  by  visiting  the  respective 
websites  where  you  will  find  updates  and 
add-ins,  as  well  as  plenty  of  help  and  advice 
from  the  publishers  and  users. 

While  every  ef f o  rt  h  a  s  b  een  m  a  d  e  to 
provide  useful  and  accurate  information 
on  these  products  and  their  installation, 
VNU  cannot  beheld  responsibleforany 
inaccuracies  in  the  text  or  damage  that 
may  result  from  running  this  software. 

BeOS  5  Personal  Edition 

Thanks  to  the  new  Version  5,  you  can  now 
install  BeOS  as  a  file  within  Windows.  No 
repartitioning  is  necessary,  and  launching 
BeOS  5  is  as  simple  as  double-clicking  an 
icon  on  your  desktop. 

PCW  group  tests 

Yo  u '  ve  got  access  to  mo  re  than  six  mo  nths 
of  product  testing  from  the  pages  of  PCW . 
Desktop  PCs,  anti-virus  software,  CD 
writers,  databases,  digital  cameras,  DTP 
software,  hard  drives,  image  editors, 
monitors,  motherboards,  notebooks, 

PDAs,  printers,  visual  programming 
software,  and  webcams  are  included. 

The  group  tests  are  presented  as  Adobe 
Acrobat  files  to  preserve  the  original 
layouts.  You  can  browse  or  search  each 
feature,  copy  text  from  the  documents,  or 
print  them  out  for  reading  or  reference. 

Games  demos 

Vampire 

Live  as  the  undead:  asChristof,  a  vampire  of 
the  Brujah  Clan,  you  must  fight  and  feed  on 
the  blood  of  mortals,  while  hiding  your 
vampiric  powers  and  controlling  the  urges 
of  the  beast  within  you.  Masquerade's 
powerful  3D  engine-  dramatic  lighting,  fog 


effects  and  gorgeous  textures  -  bring  life  to 
the  mediaeval  settings,  and  Gothic  realism 
to  the  cities  of  London  and  N  ew  York. 

Homeworld  (new  demo) 

This  updated  Homeworld  demo  includes 
the  game's  first  two  missions  and  a  step-by- 
step  tutorial. 

In  thefirst  mission,  command  the 
massive  mothership  to  begin  construction 
of  yourfleet.  In  mission  two,  learn  to  engage 
enemy  craft  in  the  unique  3D  battlefield  of 
deep  space.  Each  victory  brings  you  closer 
to  H  iigra,  your  homeworld. 

Star  T  rek:  N  ew  W  orlds 

This  presents  the  Star  T rek  universe  as  never 
seen  before.  Setintheyear2292,thegame 
chronicles  the  challenges  and  adventures  of 
a  small  group  of  colonial  officerson  the 
surfaces  of  new  alien  worlds. 

Motocross  Madness  2 

Thetrial  version  features  both  a  stunt 
quarryfor  freestyle  competition  and  a 
N  ationals  track  for  intense  motocross 
racing,  as  well  as  two  of  the  game's  16-plus 
bikes,  and  two  racing  skins.  This  version  has 
single  and  multiplayer  options,  with 
multiplayer  matchmaking  for  up  to  eight 
racers  availableonZone.com  (seealsoour 
review  on  page 455). 


Practice  some  body-bending  motocross 


Dino  Crisis 

Ported  from  the  PlayStation  to  the  PC,  Dino 
Crisis,  from  Capcom  -  creators  of  Resident 
Evil  -  pits  you  against  some  of  the  most 
ferocious  predators  that  roamed  the  earth 
(see our  review  on  page 456). 


Starting  the  DVD-ROM 

The  DVD  should  auto-start,  just  like  the  CD. 
If  it  doesn't,  double-click  the  DVD-RO  M 
icon  in  My  Computer  or,  alternatively,  run 
the  file  PCW. EXE  on  the  root  of  the  DVD. 
Check  out  the  support  website  at 
www.pcw.vnunet.com/cd  for  late-breaking 
news  on  the  programs  on  the  disc. 


YJ  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


contents 

NEWS 

26 

New  email  threats. 
Windows  M  E  and 
Win2K  update  ship 

27 

Toll-free  snarl-ups 

28 

Death  of  the  VCR 

30 

ADSL  home  at  last 

40 

New  Apples 

ANALYSIS 

37 

Software  sales  go 
soft 

38 

Boffins  emerge 

44 

Bluetooth  fears 

46 

Three  page  special 
report  on  low-power 
chips  and  screens 

D  ial-up  jams  and  free  U  S  calls 
signpost  AD  SL  for  the  future 


Computing  lurched  into 
the  21st  Century  last 
month  as  ADSL  moved  out  of 
its  trial  phase  and  into  homes 
and  offices- while  some  of 
the  new  unmetered  dial-up 
services  buckled  under  huge 
demand  (seepage27). 

The  snarl-ups  were  blamed 
on  heavy  users  hogging  lines, 
but  the  real  culprit  was  the 
dial-up  system  itself.  The 
lesson  was  clear:  we  have  to 
move  on,  whether  it  is  to 
ADSL  or  cable  (see  page  30). 

BTOpenWorld,  EasyNet 
and  Demon  areamong 
several  companies  offering 
A D  SL  -  see  vnunet. com  fo r  the 


Dead  heat  at  GHz-plus 


We  got  to  test  Intel's 
latest  1.13GHz  Pill 
just  before  we  went  to  press. 

It  lets  Intel  claim  to  have  the 
fastest  x8 6  processor,  but  our 
results  show  users  would  see 
little  difference  in  comparison 
with  AM  D's  l.lGHzAthlon  - 
even  with  the  Pill  using 
expensive  RAM  BUS  memory. 

And  finding  systems  using 
the  Pill  will  be  tricky:  it  will  be 
available  in  limited  quantities, 
writesjason  Jenkins. 

Wetested  it  with  256M  B  of 
PC800  RAM  BUS  and  a  64MB 
3D  Prophet  II  graphics  card  on 
an  Intel  VC820  board.  For 
comparison  we  used  an 
Athlon  in  a  M  esh  M  atrixl.l 
GT  PRO  using  256MB  PC133 
SDRAM  and  the  Prophet  II. 

The  scores  were  (Athlon  in 
brackets):  205  (204)  in 
SYSmark2000;  7,265  (7,261) 
in  3DM  ark2000;  118.7fps 


(115.2fps)  in  Q uake III;  and 
23  minutes  2  seconds  (21 
minutes  11  seconds)  for  our 
test  scene  in  3D  Studio  Max. 

Meanwhile,  anon-games 
application  that  mayhelp 
create  a  mainstream  market 
for  lGHz-plus chips  has 
finally  emerged,  writesClive 
Akass.  A  video-conferencing 
system  developed  jointly  by 
Picturetel  and  Intel  is  said  to 
p  ro  vi  d  e  j  er  k-f  ree  f  u  1 1  -sc  reen 
video  at  256Kbits/sec. 

Tim  Duffy,  Picturetel'svp 
o  f  co  n  f  eren  c  i  n  g  p  ro  d  u  ct  s, 
says  it  will  be  implemented  in 
software  when  processing 
speeds  get  fast  enough.  See 
picture  on  page  30. 

•  IBM  has  confirmed  that  it 
will  launch  notebooks  using 
Tra  n  sm  et  a '  s  b  a  ttery-sa  vi  n  g 
Crusoe  chips.  Special  reports  on 
powersaving-  pp46,41 ,48. 

•  A  thlon  reviewed ...  page  7  3 . 


21st  century  storage 

The  month's  other  big  event  was  Panasonic's  release  of  a  4.7GB 
DVD-RAM  drive  that  sets  a  benchmark  for  next-generation 
storage.  R  iyad  E  meran  argues  (p28)  that  one  version  will 
supersede  the  venerable  video  cassette  and  its  PC  -based  sibling 
( review  p98)  already  looks  like  a  must-have  at  £319  ex  VA  T. 


latest  on  deals.  Business  rates 
arearound  £90  a  month  fora 
basic  512/256K  business  link, 
plus  installation  charges. 
Prices  vary  according  to 
service  guarantees  and  line 
contention  ratios (ie,  the 
number  of  sharers). 

Homeconnectionswill  be 
available  shortly  for  around 
£40  exVAT  a  month.  But 
many  poorer  users  may  get 
ADSL  by  sharing  links. 

Until  usage  patterns  settle, 
even  ISPs  will  not  know  what 
effect  contention  ratios, 
which  vary  between  20  and 
70  to  one,  will  have.  Usage  is 


almost  impossibleto  predict 
with  content,  demographics, 
technologyand  even  modes 
of  human  interaction  all 
changing  at  once. 

There  is  sureto  bea  shift  of 
voicecallsto  thenet  using 
Voice-over-IP  services  such  as 
Go2Call  and  Net2Phone. 

MSN  is  offering  free  PC-to- 
phonecallsto  theUS.  Nick 
Babaian,  MSN  business 
development  manager, 
believes  VoIP  could  takea 
big  chunkofthe  market. 
There  are  always  going  to  be 
paid-for  routes  because  of 
regulated  markets,'  hesaid. 


And  for  my  NeXt  trick... 


T he  most  stylish  machine 
of  the  month  has  to  be  the 
new  G  4  cube,  which  was 
unveiled  by  Apple  head 
honcho  Steve  Jobs.  But... 
er...  haven't  we  seen 
something  like  this  before? 
Well,  there  was  the  NeXt 
cube  (inset),  launched  in 
1988  and  still  looking 
great  after  all  these 
years.  T  he  head  of  NeXT 
at  the  time  was  a  certain 
Steve  Jobs. 

•  Apple  gives  PC  vendors  a 
thing  or  two  to  think  about  - 
page40. 


EJ 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


1 


3orn  sites  are 
topforfraud 

Pornography  sites  attract  the 
highest  levels  of  onlinefraud 
and  UK  credit-card  firms  have 
told  them  to  clean  up  their  act. 

Under  a  scheme  launched 
by  credit  companies  in  April 
the  sites  facefines  of  up 
to  approx£3,000  a  month  if 
more  than  two  per  cent  of 
their  card  transactions  are 
fraudulent.  However  Visa 
now  imposes  fines  of  up  to 
around  £60,000  a  month  if 
fraud  levels  go  above  seven 
percent. 

Fraud  accounts foran 
estimated  0.16  per  cent  of 
credit-card  transactions 
worldwide-  considerably  less 
than  thefour  per  cent  average 
on  the  Internet.  In  Britain  this 
means  a  loss  of  £7 m  a  year. 

VNUNET.COM 

N  ot  so  safe 

Two  out  of  three  PC 
passwords  can  be  easily 
cracked,  according  to  new 
research  by  credit-card  giant 
Visa.  Morethanfouroutof 
10  people  use  their  birth  date, 
sportsteam  orthenameofa 
pop  star.  0  ne  in  five  use  their 
own  name. 

The  easily  cracked 
passwords  are  used  to  get 
online  bank  details  or  to 
eshop  as  well  as  to  get  into 
their  PCs,  the  company  says. 

Ball-free  mice 

Fujitsu  Takamisawa,  like 
Apple,  hasjust  launched  a 
new  range  of  optical  mice 
with  a  four-way  switch  scroll 
button  that  is  said  to  be  ideal 
in  dusty  areas  and  schools, 
where  mouse  trackballs  tend 
to  get  lost,  www.fteu.com 
For  more  on  Apple  see  p40. 


Security  flaws  dig  deeper 

Just  clicking  on  an  email  can  be  worse  than  Love  Bug,  warns  Microsoft 


Microsoft  has  issued  a 
flurryofwarnings 
about  security  flaws, 
including  two  gaping  holes 
that,  if  exploited,  could  make 
the  Love  Bug  look  positively 
cuddly.  Both  can  betriggered 
simply  by  downloading  email 
-  most  email  viruses  require 
you  to  open  an  attachment. 

One  involves  an  unchecked 
buffer  that  parses  email 
headers.  A  long  bogus  date 
can  crash  the  email  client 
and  send  excess  data, 
which  maybemaliciouscode, 
into  memory  where  it  might 
be  executed. 

In  a  security  notice  Micro¬ 
soft  said  thecodecould  do 


anything  you  can  do  at  the 
keyboard  'including  reformat¬ 
ting  the  hard  drive,  communi¬ 
cating  with  an  external  website, 
or  changing  data'. 

TheArgentinian  security 
firm  Underground  Security 
Systems  Research,  which 
discovered  the  vulnerability, 
said  it  constituted  'a  new 
generation  of  virus'. 

OutlookunderWindows 
2000  and  0  utlook  Express, 
which  is  bundled  with 
Internet  Explorer,  are  both 
affected.  M  icrosoft  advises  an 
upgradeto  either  IE  5.01 
Service  Pack  1  or  IE  5.5.  There 
is  also  a  fixin  Win2K  Service 
Release  1  (see  below). 


The  second  flaw,  found 
by  Bulgarian  coder  Georgi 
Guninski,  can  betriggered  by 
opening  a  rogue  web  page  as 
well  asimpleemail.  It  tells  the 
target  computer  to  download 
Visual  Basiccodefroma 
remote  machine.  A  second 
email  can  then  tell  the 
machineto  run  thecode 
within  M  icrosoft  Access  and  it 
can  again  do  virtually  anything 
an  authorised  user  can  do. 

M  icrosoft  says  you  can  set 
an  administrator  password 
fo  r  Access  th  at  th  ro  ws  u  p  a 
prompt  before  the  rogue 
code  is  executed. 
www.microsoft.com/technet 
/security/ current. asp 


T his  watch  was  produced 
by  version  2.0  of  the 
programmable  M  ental 
R  ay  rendering  software 
3D  Studio  MAX  that  is 
now  being  shipped  by 
.D  iscreet,  a  division  of 
A  utodesk.  It  costs  from 
£1,945  and  requires 
3D  Studio  M  ax  R 3.1. 
www.discreet.com 


M  icrosoft  reglazes  Windows 


Microsoft  is  releasing 
revamps  of  both  its 
consumer  Windows  9xand 
corporate  Windows  2000 
products. 

WindowsM  illennium 
Edition  (ME)  will  ship  on  13 
September,  initially  for  £39.99 
inc  VAT  as  an  upgradefor 
Windows98or98SE-or 
£79.99  after  31  December. 

Windows  95  or  3.1  users 
will  have  to  buythefull 
package  at  £149.99.  But  as 
support  forthelatest 
hardware  is  a  major  reason 
for  buying  M  E,  they  have  less 
reason  to  upgrade.  Also  old 
machines  might  not  run  to  the 


minimum  spec,  which 
includes  a  150M  H  z  Pentium, 
32MB  of  RAM,  and  295MB 
free  hard-disk  space. 

The  relatively  low  upgrade 
price  may  reflect  the  fact  that 
few  people  upgraded  from 
Window  95  to  98  -  at  least, 
not  officially. 

Win2K  product  manager 
Neil  Laver  said  reasons  for  the 
upgrade  included  greater 
reliability,  system  rollback 
after  unsatisfactory  changes, 
a  better  'user  experience', 
better  multimedia  support 
like  the  new  M  edia  Player,  and 
Internet  Explorer  5.5. 

The9xand  2K/NT  lines  will 


converge  next  year  in  a 
product  codenamed  Whistler, 
part  of  M  icrosoft's  emerging 
.NET  architecture. 

Meanwhile  sales  of 
W  indows  2000  are  expected 
to  rise  with  the  release  of 
Service  Pack  1,  a  packet  of 
fixes  for  the  Professional, 
Server  and  Advanced  Server 
editions.  It  is  available  on  CD 
orasan  83M  B  download 
from  the  M  icrosoft  site. 

DataCentre,  thefourth 
component  of  Windows  2000, 
which  is  designed  to  compete 
with  Unixin  high-end  data 
systems,  should  be  also  avail¬ 
able  bythetimeyou  read  this. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Short  stories 


Toll-free  surfers  beached 


Service  providers  began  to 
backpedal  on  unmetered 
deals  last  month  as  surfers, 
freed  from  time  restraints, 
clogged  lines  and  left 
business  models  in  shreds. 

Breathe.com  infuriated 
many  by  barring  500  people 
who  had  allegedly  been 
'hogging  the  line'.  Among 
them  was  reader  Robin 
Downs,  who  told  PCW  that  at 
no  pointwashemadeaware 
of 'anyover-useoftheservice'. 

Breathe.com  said  that  it 
had  'removed  a  minorityof 
users  whose  usage  was 


extreme'  (forthefull  statement 
s eeLetters,  page66).  Their  £50 
subscription  was  refunded. 

LineOne,  meanwhile, 
announced  that  it  was 
stopping  its  unmetered 
service,  using thetelco  Quip, 
in  September  because  high 
demand  made  it  too  costly  to 
run.  Instead  it  will  offer  BT's 
more  expensive  Surftime  deal. 

One  user,  Brendan 
Crawford,  of  Stirling,  said:  'I 
was  disgusted.  They  sent  me 
an  email  about  it  at  1.57am 
onaSundaymorning. 
Basicallytheyhaveshut  it 


down  because  it  was  too 
successful.' 

Users  will  get  £20  worth  of 
free  calls  with  Quip  to  cover 
the  cost  of  a  box  they  had  to 
buy  when  they  signed  on. 
'Personally,  I'd  rather  have 
the  money,'  said  Crawford. 

Virgin  announced  that  it 
was  delaying  its  unmetered 
plans  until  it  was  sure  it  could 
offer  a  good  deal. 

M  ost  unmetered  service 
providers  reserve  the  right  to 
bar  users  and  impose  time 
limits  if  lines  become  clogged. 
M  any  cut  users  off  after  two 
hours  whether  theline  is 
active  or  not. 

This  does  not  stop  the 
popularityofwhat,  for  most 
users,  currently  is  the  nearest 
they  can  get  to  an  always-on 
service.  Thomas  Hill,  who 
was  one  of  many  complaining 
of  delays  in  the  rollout  of 
ca  b  I  e  o  p  era  to  r  N  TL' s  servi  ces, 
reported  that  he  had  finally 
got  a  connection  and  that  it 
seemed  to  be  faster  than 
using  a  BT  line. 

He  said  the  unmetered 
saga  shows  that  providers 
had  notdonetheir 
homework  properly.  'If  you 
want  to  know  how  many 
peoplewantto  [use such  a 
service]  ...takea  number  and 
multiply  it  by  100  and  you 
won't  even  be  close.' 


TOMBOLA.COM 
Addicts  of  the  kind  of  B  ingo 
competitions  run  by  the 
tabloids  will  be  attracted  to 
www.tombola.com,  which 
offers  up  to  £10,000  in  prizes  a 
week  with  a  maximum  £5,000 
jackpot ...  and  it  is  free  to  play. 

The  five-minute  games  can 
be  played  daily.  Managing 
director  Phil  Cronin  says  he 
makes  his  money  from 
advertising  and  promotion. 

SQUASHED  3D 
An  algorithm  for  geometry 
compression  with  an  efficiency 
12  times  that  of  MPEG  4  has 
been  developed  by  researchers 
at  Bell  Labs'  Mathematical 
Sciences  Research  Center  and 
Caltech's  Computer  Science 
Department  in  the  US. 

It  will  allow  3D  virtual 
objects  to  be  displayed  and 
manipulated  across  the  web, 
according  to  researchers. 

D  igital  geometric  data 
represents  objects  as  meshes  of 
triangles  and  can  be  used  for 
animations  and  video  games. 


Here  comes  the  Sun 

The  network  computer 
never  died,  it  was 
renemed  an  information 
appliance.  This  is  Sun's 
latest  SunRay  150,  a 
desktop  terminal  with 
15in  flat-panel  display 
activated  by  a  smart  card. 

All  information  is  held  on 
the  server  so  you  can  use  your 
smart  card  to 
bring  up 
your 
personal 
setup  on  any 
Sun  Ray  on  the  system. 

Details  are  at  www.sun.co.uk. 


'Poached'  Red  Herring  threatens  small  fry 


Two  British  sister  IT 
companies  have  been 
ordered  not  to  use  their  names 
by  a  large  US  magazine. 

All  threeincludethewords 
Red  Herring,  a  phrase 
stemming  from  thetime  when 
poachers  dragged  a  specimen 
of  the  said  fish  to  leave  a  false 
trail  for  tracker  dogs. 

Now  David  Jeffrey,  who 
once  worked  with  web 
pioneerTim  Berners-Lee  at 
Cern,  finds  himself  accused  of 
poaching  the  namefor  his 
two  companies  Red  Herring 


Ltd  and  Red  Herring 
Communications  Ltd. 

He  set  up  his  first  Red 
Herring  company  in  1996, 
two  years  after  the  magazine 
wasfounded,  but  at  a  time 
when  it  was  barely  known  in 
Britain.  Hiscompanieshold 
the  U  K  trademark  for  Red 
Herring  for  use  in  their 
web,  consultancyand 
support  work. 

ThemagazineRecfH  erring , 
however,  has  warned  him  to 
'cease and  desist'  from  using 
thenameorfacecourt 


action.  In  April,  thetinyOld 
Pulteney  distillery  in  Wick, 
Caithness,  which  has  a  strong 
herring  fishing  tradition,  had 
to  change thenameof  its 
newsletter  after  receiving  a 
similarthreat. 

ItseemsRedHerr/ngthe 
magazine  wants  to  promote 
sales  in  Britain  and  it  is 
applying  for  an  EU 
trademark.  Jeffrey  says  he 
will  oppose  this. 

No-oneatthe  magazine 
Red  H  erring  was  resp  o  n  d  i  n  g  to 
emails. 


'W  hat  do  you  mean,  I  should 
have  used  cod?' 

fe _ X 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


Short  stories 


WEB  NAMES  BOOST 
C  hoices  for  website  names 
should  be  much  wider  early 
next  year  following  the 
approval  of  a  plan  to  extend 
the  number  of  permitted 
suffixes  beyond  the  existing 
seven:  .com,  .org,  .net,  .edu, 
.int,  .mil  and  .gov. 

No  decision  on  which 
suffixes  will  be  adopted  will 
be  made  by  the  Internet 
Corporation  for  Assigned 
N ames and  Numbers  (Icann) 
until  20  November.  Requests 
include  .shop,  .store,  .travel, 
.news,  .tel,  .web,  .union, 
.museum,  .bank  and  .sex. 

OPEN  IPV6 

0  pen-source  operating  system 
FreeBSD  has  been  upgraded  to 
include  improved  security  and 
networking  features  -  including 
support  for  the  next-gener¬ 
ation  Internet  protocol  IPv6. 

Users  include  Sony, 

Hotmail,  MP3.com,  UUnet, 
ClaraNetand  France  Telecom. 

VNUNET.COM 

CHILD  AID 

Ko-Rec-Typeis  paying 
ChildLine  £1  for  every  laser- 
toner  or  inkjet  cartridge  (one 
with  an  attached  printhead) 
it  receives  for  recycling.  The 
company  provides  collection 
bins  and  freepost  envelopes. 
The  recycling  hotline  is 
0800  056  2416. 

PARKING  OFFER 
BCP  is  offering  discounted 
parking  at  airports  through  its 
site  at  www.bcponline.co.uk. 

Be  warned...  'discounted'  does 
not  mean  cheap. 

RIP  LIVES 

The  Regulation  of  Investigatory 
Powers  Bill  has  passed  into  law 
but  it  will  be  some  time  before 
provisions  for  some  of  its 
measures,  like  email 
surveillance,  are  in  place,  the 
Home  Office  says. 

BAN  LIFTED 

The  U S  has  relaxed  its  ban  of 
exporting  encryption 
technology  to  Europe, 
Australasia,  and  Japan. 

Industry  has  argued  that  it  was 
holding  back  ecommerce. 


DVD-RAM  recorders  could  take  over  our  living  rooms,  says  Riyad  Emeran 


VCR  is  dead,  long  live  VDR 


With  the  audio  cassette 
finally  starting  to  see 
extinction  through  mass 
adoption  of  M  iniDisc  and 
solid-state  music  devices,  it 
looks  like  the  VHS  video 
cassette's  number  could  also 


capabilities  in  its  next- 
generation  DVD-ROM  and 
DVD-Video  players.  This  vision 
becomes  more  believable 
when  you  consider  that 
Hitachi  was  showing  off  a 
DVD-RAM  camcorder  at  last 
year's  Comdex  exhibition  in 
Las  Vegas,  with  Panasonic  also 
working  on  a  similar  device. 

Theonlythingthat 
could  throw  a  spanner 
in  the  works  is  the 
impending  launch  of 
DVD+RW.  Philips 
claims  that  DVD  +RW 
iscompatiblewith  all 
existing  DVD  products, 
but  as  we  have  yet  to 
see  a  single  unit  based 
on  thetechnology, 
DVD-RAM  definitely 
looks  the  stronger 
contender. 

Of  course,  there  is  another 
issueto  consider  with  digital 
recording  and  that's  digital 
copyright.  There's  not  much 
point  having  a  digital  video 
recorder  if  you're  still  having 
to  record  from  an  analog  TV, 
but  thechancesof  being 
allowed  to  record  from  digital 
TV  are  pretty  slim  since  you'll 
be  making  a  perfect  digital 
copyoftheoriginal.  Panasonic 
says  that  this  issue  is  currently 
under  discussion.  That  said, 
regardless  of  what  the  original 
source  is,  theDMR-ElOis 
likely  to  knock  even  the  best 
VHS  VCR  into  a  cocked  hat. 

ThepriceoftheDM  R-E10 
isaround  £1,500  injapan, 
but  it  is  not  expected  to 
launch  in  the  U  K  until  next 
year.  However,  Panasonic  has 
launched  a  4.7GB  DVD-RAM 
drivefor  PCs  at  just  £299  ex 
VAT  (see  review  page 98) . 


beup  soon.  The  VCR  has 
been  with  us  for  over  20  years 
and,  although  DVD  players 
have  started  to  take  over  as 
the  preferred  medium  for 
watching  movies,  many  VCR 
users  won't  take  the  DVD 
plungedueto  its  lack  of  a 
recording  facility. 

Panasonic  is  set  to  change 
the  shape  of  consumer  video 
recording  with  the 
release  of  its  DM  R- 
E10  DVD-RAM  video 
recorder.  Although 
Pioneer  released  a 
consumer  DVD 
recorder  several 
months  ago,  it  was 
based  on  DVD-RW 
media  that  is 
currentlyonlyused  by 
the  Pioneer  player 
itself.  DVD-RAM ,  on  Snapped. 
theotherhand,  is 
alreadyan  established  media 
with  manyPC  users  adopting 
it  for  high  capacity  backup 
and  storage. 

The  beauty  of  the  DM  R- 
E10  is  that  it  uses  exactly 
the  same  discs  as  the  PC 
devices,  making  it  easyto 
record  footage,  transfer  it 
to  your  PC  for  editing  and 


then  return  it  to  the  player 
for  viewing. 

The  DM  R-E10  will  accept 
both  theolder  2.6GB  per  side 
DVD-RAM  discs  and  the  new 
4.7GB  persidediscs.  Double¬ 
sided  discs  can  be  used,  but 
as  there  is  only  one  laser  in  the 
device  the  media  will  have  to 
be  ejected  and  flipped  when 


„  Hitachi's  DVD  Camcorder 


the  end  of  a  side  is  reached. 
The  player  incorporates  an 
M  PEG2  encoderand  thebit 
rate  can  be  altered  to  increase 
either  the  video  qualityorthe 
length  of  recording. 

Panasonic  feels  that 
DVD-RAM  isthefutureof 
recordable  media  and  is 
including  DVD-RAM  read 


1¥U  ISAM 

4-7. 

U  ■  Uk 


0  pen  and  shut  case...  single-side 
4.7GB  discscannow  be  removed  from 
their  cartridges.  But  double-sided  9.4GB 
discs  will  be  sealed  in  as  in  previous  models 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


ANALYSIS  >  > 


ADSL 


Dial-up  web  services  are  yesterday's  news.  Pull  a  fast  one  with  ADSL,  advises  Clive  Akass 

Speeding  into  the  future  at  512K 


Video  links  also  become  more  viable  as  bandwidths  rise. 
Picturetel's  new  900  Series  videoconferencing  system  claims  to 
give  full-screen  video  at  30  frames  a  second  at  2 56K bits/sec  with 
excellent  quality  sound.  A  smart  camera  zooms  in  on  speakers  and 
pulls  back  when  a  group  is  listening.  I  can't  say  how  the  system 
performs  on  an  IP  link,  but  on  a  3 84 Kbits/ sec  ISD  N  line  it  was  the 
best  I  have  seen.  Prices  start  at  around  £7,500,  complete  with  the 
controlling  PC.  But  the  system  may  migrate  to  cheaper  desktops  - 
see  page  25.  www.picturetel.com 


Forget,  if  you  can, 
unmetered  dial-up 
services  puttering  along  at 
56K.  Theyareyesterdaytrying 
to  catch  up  with  today.  The 
farce  of  heavy  users  being 
thrown  offlinelikecriminals 
only  serves  to  highlightthe 
fact  that  it  isthedial-up 
system  itself  that  is  hogging 
the  line,  not  the  user. 

I've  been  using  BT  Open- 
World's  512/256Kbits/sec 
ADSL  service  for  a  month 
and  three  things  are 
overwhelmingly  clear:  this  is 
the  way  access  (at  least  via 
theold  phonesystem)  hasto 
go,  it  will  change  lives,  and  it 
isjustastart. 

ADSL,  by  piggybacking  a 
high-frequency  signal  onto 
your  line,  is  far  more  efficient 
than  dial-up  and  leaves  your 
phonefreefor  calls.  ADSL  is 
truly  always  on.  Unmetered 
dial-up  and  office  users  have 
an  idea  what  this  means,  but 
to  appreciate  it  fullyyou  need 
it  there  in  your  home.  It 
makes  the  Internet  likeTV, 
ever  available  with  no  sweat. 
And  if  you  thinkyou  can't 
afford  it,  read  on... 

Installation  turned  out  to 
becompletelypainless.  A  BT 
engineer  replaced  theold 
three-box  setup  I'd  used  for 
an  early  Virgin  trial  with  a 
single  Alcatel-made  box 
combining  thefunctions  of 
four-port  router,  splitter,  and 


ADSL  modem.  He  plugged  it 
into  a  network  card  on  one  of 
my  PCs,  tested  the  line,  and 
leftmeto  install  the  software 
from  a  CD. 

Thedocumentation 
offered  little  help  on  multiple 
PCsbutthefree support  desk 
proved  knowledgeable  and 
helpful.  To  get  online  with  a 
second  machine,  I  plugged  it 
into  oneoftherouter  ports 
and  simply  copied  the 
p  a  ra  m  et  ers  o  ver  f  ro  m  t  h  e 
first  machine. 

M  y  little  net  was  now  open 


to  a  world  that  is  effectively 
cut  off  to  slow,  expensive 
links.  The  response  of 
particular  servers  was  still 
sluggish,  but  suddenly  it 
becamefeasibleto  listen  to 
net  radio  orwatch  net  video. 

Also  moreviablewere 
instant  messaging  services  like 
those  run  by  AO  L,  Yahoo,  and 
M  SN .  These,  I  am  sure,  will  be 
major  d rivers  of  I nternet  use 
when  people  get  the  hang  of 
them  -  and  especially  as  they 
begin  to  incorporate  voice 
and  video.  Essentiallythey 


TobeorNATto  be... 


Your  choice  of  ADSL  service  may  be  affected 
by  the  apparently  obscure  business  of 
Network  Ad  dress  Translation  (NAT),  whereby  a 
gateway  router  or  server  allocates  IP  addresses 
to  machines  on  a  local  network.  The  web  can 
talk  to  the  gateway,  but  does  not  know  how  to 
reach  an  individual  machine. 

In  an  earlier  report,  stemming  from  a  long 
discussion  at  a  press  conference,  I  said 
OpenWorld  was  not  using  NAT.  It  turns  out 
thatonlytheUSB  homedeal,  launchingthis 
autumn,  will  beNAT-free. 


NAT  ispopularwith  businesses  because  it 
is  a  major  obstacle  to  hackers;  but  it  does 
have  snags.  You  can't  host  a  website  locally, 
or  use  some  Virtual  Private  N  etwork  (VPN ) 
systems  that  extend  an  office  network  to 
remote  workers.  NAT  also  interferes  with 
M  icrosoft'sNetM  eeting,  and  some  messaging 
and  VoIP  systems. 

You  can  compromise,  however,  bygetting 
a  NAT-free system  and  a  firewall.  ADSL 
providers  like  Demon  (www.demon.net)  are 
offering  NAT  and  non-NAT  options. 


turn  you  and  your  scattered 
friends  into  a  virtual  group, 
ableto  communicate(or 
not,  as  you  choose)  as  if 
you  arein  thesameroom. 
They  are  a  revolutionary 
means  of  interaction. 

Most  astonishing  to  me 
was  the  quality  of  Voice  Over 
IP  links.  I  could  get  myNAT- 
ted  link  (Network  Address 
Translation,  see  below)  to 
workonlywith  MSN'sfree 
Net2Phone-based  service  (see 
page28)  but  I  had,  absolutely 
free,  a  half-hour  crystal-clear 
PC-to-phone  conversation 
with  someone  in  New  York. 

If thisqualitycan  be 
maintained  with  heavy  use, 
VoIP  alonecould  recoup  the 
cost  of  ADSL. 

I  also  tried  Napster,  which 
(in  easel  need  to  explain) 
helpsyou  locateand 
download  music.  I  could  see 
whythe  music  industry  is 
worried:  I  chose  a  few  titles, 
went  to  a  shop  round  the 
corner,  and  Napster  had 
channelled  me  half  an  LP  by 
the  time  I  came  back.  (A 
system  that  does  not  reward 
creativity  can't  be  good,  but 
Napster  will  at  least  force  the 
industry  to  agree  a  way  of 
enabling  onlinesales-  and 
not  at  inflated  CD  prices). 

The  ADSL  setup  I  used  is  a 
good  starter  for  a  small  office 
network  of  four  machines - 
more  are  possible,  by 
plugging  in  a  hub,  but 
remember  all  have  to  share 
the  512/256K  bandwidth. 

Don't  despair  if  you  are 
counting  your  pennies.  Factor 
in  those  VoIP  calls.  Think  of 
neighbours  who  mightshare 
a  connection.  Lookfor 
cheaper  lower-bandwidth 
ADSL  links.  And  don't  take 
your  eyes  off  the  ball  by 
campaigning  for  better  dial¬ 
up  deals:  push  for  512K  ADSL 
as  entry-level  for  all,  and  it 
won't  be  so  long  before  it 
seems  like  a  crawl. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


|  SOFTWARE  | 

UK  entrepreneur  Daniel  Doll-Steinberg  isaboutto  change  the  way  we  buy  programs 


Packaged  software  gets  upstaged 


D  oll-Steinberg  with  some  of  the  components  of  his  system  -  and  a 
few  of  his  titles 


Software  dealers  are  facing 
the  kind  of  shake-up 
normally  associated  with  a 
major  revamp  of  one  of  their 
products  -  and  it  should  push 
down  prices. 

Most  hyped  of  all  the 
changes  is  the  advent  of 
application  service  providers 
(ASPs)  who  run  software 
remotely  on  the  behalf  of 
clients.  ASPs  have  their  place 
but  there  is  surely  wishful 
thinking  in  thewaytheyare 
being  talked  up  by  the  likes  of 
M  icrosoft,  which  is  slavering 
at  the  prospect  of  long-term 
revenues  from  what  are 
currently  one-off  sales. 

There  is  something  daft 
about  the  waysoftware  is 
sold  off-the-shelf  in  oversized 
packaging  -  a  hangover  from 
the  days  when  hard  disks 
were  not  big  enough  to  hold 
documentation  and  code 
camewith  manualsthesizeof 
an  encyclopaedia. 

M  arketeers  have  decided 
that  we  still  expect  large 
packaging.  The  result  is  bad 
for  everyone  but  the  carton 
makers:  dealers  carry  less 
stock;  users  have  less  choice 
and  feel  vaguely  cheated;  and 
both  paypointlesslyfor 
wasteful  cardboard. 

Now  UK  entrepreneur 
Daniel  Doll-Steinberg  is 
challenging  the  idea  that 
dealers  need  to  carry  physical 
stock  at  all.  His  system  for 
burning  and  packaging  CDs 
on  thespot  isaboutto  be 
rolled  out  atWH  Smith's  550 
stores  nationwide. 

This  is  an  even  bigger  deal 
than  it  mayfirst  seem.  You 
would  expect  WH  Smith  to 
carrytheodd  gameor 
educational  title;  but  because 
the  'stock'  is  held  as  data,  the 
number  of  titles  a  store  can 
hold  is  limited  only  by  disk 
spaceand  licensing. 

'About  80  publishers  have 
licensed  us  products  or  are 
about  to.  We  have  1,050  titles 


livetodayand  about  950 
being  prepared  for  release,' 
said  Doll-Steinberg.  So 
people  in  small  towns 
boasting  a  WH  Smith  will 
have  access  to  software,  such 
as  Borland/lnprisedevelop- 
mentkits,  normallyfound 
only  in  specialist  shops. 

Doll-Steinberg,  who 
studied  electronics  at 
M  anchester  University, 
worked  in  banking  IT  systems 
beforefounding  his  company 
Tribeka  in  1997:  'I  always 
wanted  to  found  myown 
companybythetimel  was30 
and  I  did  it.  Just.  I  was  29  and 
a  half.' 

He  got  the  idea  for  his 
system,  called  SoftWide, 
while  working  for  Credit 
Lyonnaisein  New  York.  'A  lot 
of  my  friends  were  software 
developers  and  they  were 
always  talking  about  how 
hard  it  was  to  get  software 
into  shops.  They  were  at  the 
mercy  of  retailers.' 

A  single SoftW ide system 


costs  around  £30,000,  which 
Doll-Steinberg  reckons  can  be 
recouped  in  two  years  with 
reasonable  sales.  It  is  a  sum 
well  within  thescopeof  a 
small  local  trader  as  well  as 
big  chains. 

Data  is  held  on  a  two 
RAID  arrays,  each  with  five 
50GB  disks  holding  a  total  of 
half  a  terabyte  -  enough  for 
2,500  titles.  Doll-Steinberg 
expects  the  number  of  titles  to 
swell  naturally  as  hard  disk 
capacities  increase. 

BlankCDsarefed  to  an 
array  of  four  writers,  which 
can  be  used  concurrently,  and 
then  on  to  a  labeller  where 
they  are  branded  just  likea 
CD  -  except  that  they  can  be 
c  u  st o  m  i  sed .  T  h  ere  a  re  t  h  ree 
other  printers:  a  Tektronix 
Phaser  850  for  the  CD  case 
labels;  an  H  P  4500  DN  colour 
laserforthe manual,  and  an 
HP  Professional  for  the 
software  certificate. 

Doll-Steinberg  is  proud  of 
a  system  he  developed  himself 


by  which  the  cover  page  can 
be  peeled  off  an  A4  backing 
sheet  after  printing.  The  result 
is  a  professional-quality 
package  about  the  size  of  a 
DVD  case  and  carrying  all  the 
usual  branding  and  graphics. 

N  ew  software  is  delivered 
weeklyon  a  20GB  hard  disk 
that  plugs  directly  into  the 
USB  port  of  the  controlling 
PC  (or  in  WH  Smith's  case,  an 
iMac).  A  bonus  is  that 
software  is  always  up  to  date. 
'If  a  new  virus  like  the  Love 
Bug  comes  along,  wecan 
make  sure  that  our  anti-virus 
packages  can  cope  with  it.  We 
can  even  amend  the  manual.' 

Doll-Steinberg  is 
experimenting  with  satellite 
delivery  of  small  updates  but, 
though  installation  would 
only  cost  about  £1,000  per 
site,  per  M  B  charges  are  too 
great  for  bulk  data  dumps. 

Sadly,  prices  of  his  products 
arethesameasthestandard 
issue.  But  Doll-Steinberg  said: 
'In  the  long  run  theyarebound 
to  comedown.'  H  e  has  no  fear 
of  software  sales  switching  to 
Internet  downloads  as 
bandwidths  increase.  'Even  if 
that  happenstherewill  the 
licensing  issues  that  we  have 
alreadysolved.  People  will  still 
cometo  us.' 

The  system,  which  can 
produceabout40CDsan 
hour,  has  been  piloted  in  10 
WH  Smith  stores  and  is  set  to 
be  rolled  out  nationwide  by 
the  end  of  next  year.  Two 
H  M  V  stores  carry  the  system, 
and  the  French  chain  FNAC  is 
to  implement  it. 

Doll-Steinberg  has 
considered  producing  a 
similar  system  for  instant 
books,  initially  for  printing 
titles  in  large typefor  the 
poor-sighted.  'Basically  we 
would  onlyneed  to  add  a 
binding  machine,'  hesaid. 
'Butforthemoment  I  think 
I'll  stick  to  software.' 

CLIVE  AKASS 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


New  models 


THE  MACHINES 
For  detailed  specs,  options, 
and  what  colours  are  available 
for  the  new  iM  ac  models  see 

www.apple.com/  ukstore. 


UNDERTHE COVERS 
The  new  iMacs...  the  basic 
350MHz  model  costs  £552 
(£649  inc  VAT),  complete  with 
CD  drive,  7GB  disk  and 
modem.  Thetop-of-the-range 
iMac  DV  special  edition  is 
£1,020  (£1,199  inc  VAT)  with 
128MB  of  RAM,  30GB  disk, 
twin  FireWire,  and  DVD  drive. 

SMALL  IS  BEAUTIFUL 
The  450MHz 
G-Cube  costs 
£1,249  (£1,470 
inc  VAT)  with 
64MB  of  RAM, 

20GB  disk,  modem 
and  DVD.  Similar 
500MHz  model  costs  £1,599 
(£1,879  inc  VAT).  Monitor  extra. 

G4s GO  GRAPHITE 
N  ew  Power  M  acs 
range  from  the 
single-G  4  400MHz 
with  64M  B  of 
RAM,  DVD  drive, 
G  igabit  Ethernet  and  20G  B 
disk  for  £1,149  (£1,350  inc 
VAT)  to  £2,499  (£2,936  inc 
VAT)  for  a  500M  H  z  twin-G  4 
with  256MB  of  RAM.  The 
monitor  costs  extra. 


MONITORS 

The  1,024x768  15inTFT 
Apple  Studio  costs  £699  (£821 
inc  VAT).  The  1,600x1,024 
22in  Apple  Cinema  TFT  costs 
£2,799  (£3,299  inc  VAT).  The 


iMac-stylel6in 

(viewable) 

Apple  Studio 
CRT  display  is 
priced  at  £349 
(£410  inc  VAT), 


|  APPLE  | 

C  ube  shapes  up  M  ac  line 


M  acO  S  X,  due  for  beta  release  this  autumn ,  should  help 
applications  use  the  new  twin  C  4  s. 


Apple  has  reinforced 
its  revival  with  an 
impressive  new  range  offering 
something  to  tempt  everyone. 

Thereare four  new  low- 
cost  iM  acs,  a  400M  H  z  Power 
M  ac,  and  the  much-vaunted 
G-Cube,  powered  bya  single 
M  otorola-made450M  Hzor 
500M  HzG4  processor  and 
quicklydubbed  'thetoaster' 
because  of  the  way  DVD  discs 
slot  into  thetop. 

Power  users  are  likely  to 
optforthe450M  Hzand 
500M  H  z  Power  M  acs,  which 
have  twin  G4s  as  standard  for 
much  the  same  price  as  their 
single-processor  predecesssors. 

Atthelaunch  Apple 
chairman  Steve  Jobs  showed 
a  500M  H  z  Power  M  ac  using 
only  a  single  G4  thrashing  a 
lGHzPentium  PC  running 
the  same  Photoshop  tasks. 
Thetest  should  betaken  with 
a  pinch  of  salt,  asApplechose 
both  thetasksand  thePC. 
ButtheG4  isundeniably 
powerful  and  the  machines 
belie  critics  who  saytheApple 
revival  is  more  of  style  rather 
than  substance. 

Still,  the  new  Macs  do 
have  style.  The  see-through 
lookofthefirst  iMacs  is 
retained,  with  a  new  set  of 
colours- though  not  all  are 
available  on  all  machines. 

The  much-criticised  iMac 
mouse  is  replaced  bya  new 
optical  one  in  clear  plastic 
with  the  entire  upper  surface 


acting  as  a  button.  It  plugs 
into  oneof thetwo  USB  ports 
on  the  curved  keyboard,  made 
of  a  similar  clear  plastic. 

Jobs  presented  theG-Cube, 
an8incube,  asamiracleof 
miniaturisation.  This  is  hype: 
most  notebooks  are  far 
smaller  in  volumeand  they 
include  bulky  batteries.  TheG- 
Cube's  power  unit  is  external. 

TheG3-powered  iMacsare 
unremarkable  technologically. 
The  entry-level  iM  ac,  at  just 
£649  inc  VAT,  will  appeal  to 
people  looking  foremail,  basic 
word  processing  and  accounts. 

The  other  iMacs  are 
targeted  at  the  digital  video¬ 
processing  market  (see 
below)  and  comewith  version 
2  of  Apple's  l-M  ovie  software. 

ThefamiliarApplesnag 


remains:  upgrade  choices  are 
limited  and  lockyou  into 
Apple  products  and  pricing. 
Gamers,  for  instance,  may 
turn  their  noses  up  at  the 
iM  ac's  two-year-old  ATi  Rage 
128  Pro  graphics,  with  8MB 
of  video  RAM,  but  they  will 
notbeableto  upgrade. 

The  Power  Macs  pack  an 
analog  VGA  port  but  for 
digital  graphics  you  are  stuck 
with  a  non-standard  link.  This 
delivers  video  data,  power 
and  USB  tidily  via  singlethin 
cable,  butbarsyoufroma 
wider  choiceof  displays. 

However,  USB  is  wedding 
Macs  to  PC  peripherals  and 
the  whole  range  shows  Apple 
at  last  matching  design  flair 
with  competitive  prices  and 
performance. 


How  Apple  could  change  the  PC 


ppleisgood  for  PCs. 
Thecompanyisnotthe 
onlyoneto  rethink  computer 
design,  but  it  always  gives  PC 
vendors  a  lot  to  think  about. 

They  are,  for  instance, 
likely  to  focus  on  thefactthat 
most  of  the  new  M  acs  have 
FireWire  (aka  1394),  enabling 
the  machines  to  make  the 
best  useofthenew  digital 
camcorders.  Few  PCs  boast 
FireWire,  largely  because  Intel 


wants  us  to  use  its  own  next- 
generation  USB  2.0. 

Gigabyte  has  launched  a 
FireWire-equipped  PC  mother¬ 
board  that  is  likelyto  be  well 
received  by  vendors  who  fear 
Applemayscoop  thegrowing 
digital-video  market. 

Untypically,  Appleis 
offering  11M  bits/ sec 
802.11b  wireless  network 
links  at  least  20  percent 
cheaper  than  PC  equivalents. 


Even  this  is  too  pricey  for 
what  could  bea  boom 
market  when  fast  web  links 
hitthehome. 

The  high-end  Macs  all 
support  Gigabit  Ethernet,  still 
a  minority  sport  among  PCs. 

And  thefan-freeG-Cubeis 
said  to  be  silent,  as  befits  a 
machine  that  can  be  used  for 
music.  N  oise  is  now  an  issue 
on  PC  desktop  machines  too. 

CLIVE  AKASS 


^ •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


ANALYSIS  >  > 


RADAR 


Clive  Akass  reflects  on  the  wartime  pioneers  who  fell  beyond  the  radar  of  computing  history 

Boffins  emerge  from  back  room 


If  you  thinkthis  wonderful 
contraption  (pictured 
right)  looks  like  a  glorified 
ear-trumpet,  you  are  not  far 
wrong.  It's  a  listening  device 
from  the  First  World  War, 
designed  to  provide  an  early 
warning  of  theapproach  and 
direction  of  enemy  aircraft. 
Apparently,  in  good  weather, 
it  was  surprisingly  effective. 

And  if  you  arewondering 
how  it  is  connected  with 
computing,  the  clue  is  in  the 
picture  below.  This  shows 
Freddie  Williams  and  Tom 
Kilburn  with  part  of  The 
Baby7,  theworld'sfirst 
stored-program  digital 
computer,  which  they  built  at 
M  anchester  University. 

The  link  between  the 
two  is  radar,  the  electronic 
descendant  of  that  ear 
trumpet.  The  pictures  are 
part  of  a  new  touring 
exhibition  called  The  M  agic 
Ear*,  setup  by  writer  David 
Robertson,  who  believes  that 
thecontribution  of  wartime 
radar  pioneers  to  computing 
has  been  unfairly  over¬ 
shadowed  bytheworkof 
Alan  Turing  at  the  Bletchley 
Park  codebreaking  centre. 

Radar  scientists  at  the 
Telecommunications 
Research  Establishment 
(TRE),  which  moved  to 
M  alvern  in  1942,  used  logic 


circuits  that  were  equivalent 
to  thebasic  building  blocks 
of  modern  computers.  In 
addition  'they  knew  all  about 
the  latest  pulse  circuit 
techniquesand  howto  apply 
them,' said  Robertson. 

Theybroughtthetwo 
technologies  together  to 
detect  and  analyse 'blips' 
from  a  distant  target  by 
passing  reflected  and 
reference  pulse  streams, 
remarkably  similar  to  clocked 
computer  data  streams, 
through  an  AND  gate. 

'They even  used  theword 
"gate'','  said  Chris  Burton,  of 
the  Computer  Conservation 
Society,  who  helped  build  a 
replica  of 'The  Baby7  for  its 


fiftieth  anniversary  in  1998 
(seeTom  Kilburn  interview, 
PCI/I/,  M  ay  1998). 

Bletchley  codebreakers 
used  mechanical  and  (later) 
electronic  proto-computers, 
but  their  influence  in  the 
crucial  post-war  decades  was 
less  than  it  might  have  been 
because  of  the  secrecy 
surrounding  their  work.  'No- 
one  knew  anything  about  it,' 
Burton  said. 

No-one  except  Turing  that 
is,  but  he  was  becoming 
bogged  down  in  the  ill-fated 
ACE  computer  project  at  the 
National  Physical  Laboratory. 

It  was  the  men  who  had 
worked  at  TRE  (now  the 
defence  research 
establishment  D ERA)  who 
built  Britain's  first  general- 
purpose  computers.  They 
included  Kilburn,  Williams, 
and  MauriceWilkes,  who 
wentto  Cambridge  to  build 
thefirst  operational  (as 
opposed  to  experimental) 
stored-program  computer. 

Williams  used  his 
knowledge  of  another  radar- 
accelerated  technologyto 
providethefinal  building 

Freddie  W  illiams  and  Tom 
Kilburn  and  'The  Baby',  which 
had  a  cathode  ray  tube  memory 


block  needed  to  produce 
thetrue  precursor  of  the 
modern  computer...  random 
access  memory. 

You  can  see  the  result  in 
the  picture  below:  cathode- 
ray-tube  memory.  This  used  a 
32  x32  matrixof  on-screen 
charges,  a  total  of  1,024  bits 
that  could  be  written  likea 
radar  trace  byan  electron 
beam  and  read  bya  capaci- 
tively-coupled  wire  mesh. 

M  emory  was  addressed 
in  much  thesamewayas 
modern  RAM  and, 
astonishingly,  CRT  memory 
was  still  being  used  in  the 
early  1960s. 

Robertson  is  writing  the 
biographyof  another  little- 
known  pioneer,  Alan  Freed, 
who  back  in  the  1930s 
invented  the  Pulse  Code 
Modulation  still  used  by 
today's  modems. 

All  these  men  (these  were 
pre-feminist  days)  were 
products  of  the  classic  age 
of  the  boffin,  a  creature 
assigned  by  wartime  myth- 
makers  to  the  status  of 
anonymous  'back-room  boy'. 
Turing,  famouslycrushed  by 
an  uncaring  world,  killed 
himself  in  1954. 

Roberston  believes  we  are 
in  danger  of  crushing  the 
memory  of  Turing's  contemp¬ 
oraries,  consigning  them  to 
the  back  rooms  of  history. 
'Theyareold  men  now,'  he 
said.  'Weshould  gettheir 
stories  before  it  is  too  late.' 

For  information  on  The  Baby  take 
a  look  at: 

www.cs.man.ac.uk/Visitor_ 
subweb/ history.php3 
Computer  Conservation  Society 
www.cs.man.ac.uk/CCS/ 

*  The  M  agic  E  ar,  sponsored  by 
DERA  and  the  Imperial  War 
M  useum,  is  at  M  alvern  L  ibrary 
until  7  0  ctober,  after  which  it 
will  tour  libraries  and  museums 
across  the  country. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Short  stories 


Cold  water  on  Bluetooth 


AUCTION  PROBE 
The  N  ational  Audit  0  ff  ice 
( N  AO )  may  investigate  this 
year's  auction  of  third- 
generation  (3G)  mobile  phone 
licences  that  brought  the 
Government  £22.5b.  Huge 
bids  by  five  operators  have  led 
to  fears  that  users  will  be 
overcharged,  delaying  Britain's 
online  development.  The  N  AO , 
which  presents  50  reports 
to  Parliament  each  year,  is 
holding  a  preliminary  study 
before  a  possible  full 
investigation  this  autumn. 

VNUNET.COM 

USB  LINK 

Lindy  is  selling  a  £35  U  SB  link 
for  transferring  files  between 
computers  at  up  to  8M  bits/  sec. 
It  comes  with  W  indows  9x/2K- 
compliant  software.  MACos 
software  is  also  available. 
shop.lindy.co.uk 

SPORTAL  RECORD 
The  official  EURO  2000 
website,  designed  and 
operated  bySportal.com,  is 
claiming  a  new  world  record  of 
1.41  billion  hits.  The  France  98 
World  Cup  site  is  listed  in  the 
current  G  uinness  B  ook  of 
R  ecords  as  the  most  visited. 


Bluetooth  developers  are 
warning  people  not  to 
have  too  high  expectations 
when  products  start  to  ship 
later  this  year. 

The  developers  of  the 
wireless  technology  are 
holding  regular  'plug-tests'  in 
a  bid  to  avoid  the  kind  of 
teething  problems  that  hit 
early  products  using  PC  Card 
slots  and  infra-red  links.  Both 
technologies  were  nearly 
killed  at  birth  because 
products  from  onevendor 
could  not  be  guaranteed  to 
work  with  those  from  another. 

IR  links,  arguably,  have 
never  recovered  their 
credibility  even  though  they 
are  now  quite  reliable. 


TDK  research  and 
development  director  N  ick 
Hunn  pointsoutthat 
Bluetooth  is  no  more  than 
a  short-range  cable 
replacement  and  is  not  a 
wireless  network  -  though 
Bluetooth  is  often  referred  to 
as  a  'personal  area  network'. 

Phil  O'Donovan,  M  D  of 
Cambridge  Silicon  Radio 
which  produced  theworld's 
first  single-chip  Bluetooth 
implementation,  says  his 
product  was  one  of  only  four 
to  show  interoperability  at  a 
recent  plug-fest.  He  said:  'If 
peoplego  through  thetest 
procedures  there  should  not 
bea  problem.  But  it  will  take 
sometimeto  sort  out.' 


Bluetooth'srangeisonly 
10  metres  -  but  that  encom¬ 
passes  an  area  of  around  300 
square  metres,  with  hundreds 
of  people  using  Bluetooth 
devices.  There  has  been  talk 
of  d evices  seizi ng  u p  fo r  a  few 
minutes  as  they  handshake 
everything  within  range. 

O'Donovan  says  there  are 
algorithms  to  deal  with  the 
problem,  including  talking 
only  to  the  strongest  signals, 
or  you  can  dictate  which 
devices  can  talk  to  each  other. 
He  says  there  can  be  inter¬ 
ference  with  802.11b  wireless 
networking  devices  at  ranges 
of  less  than  threefeet:  'But 
you  can  get  more  interference 
from  a  microwave  oven.' 


Memory  hits  new  heights 

M  itsubishi  is  shipping  what  it  claims  are  the  largest-ever  flash 
memory  modules-  a  128MB  Compact  Flash  (CF)  card  and  a 
640MB  PC  Card.  But  solid-state  storage  cannot  yet  compete  on 
price  per  megabyte  with  IBM 'sM  icrodrive,  which  fits  into  a  CPU 
slot.  M  itsubishi's  U  K  sales  manager  N  igel  Furmston  said  new 
Flash  would  be  'very  expensive' .  Currently  440 MB  flash- 
memory  PC  Cards  cost  more  than  £1,000,  compared  with  £310 
for  a  1GB  M  icrodrive.  Furmston  pointed  out  that  demand  for 
flash  memory  is  outstripping  supply:  '1/1/  e  are,  like  everyone  in  the 
industry ,  investing  heavily  in  manufacturing  and  R&  D  to  boost 
•  production  and  bring  prices  down, '  he  said. 


•  Personal  Computer  World 


October  2000 


Indexing  thespoken  word 


An  indexing  system 
designed  for  voice 
archives  could  be  used  by 
intelligence  agencies  to 
monitor  phonecalls. 

The  system  is  being 
developed  by  the  Speech  and 
Robotics  group  at  Cambridge 
University's  engineering 
department  (see  page 47)  for 
the  benefit  of  organisations 
like  the  BBC  that  need  to  keep 
track  of  huge  sound  archives. 

Thework,  currentlyusing 
voice  sources  on  the  net,  is 
partlysponsored  byM  icro- 
softand  uses  a  M  icrosoft 
speech  recognition  engine. 

N  o  software  can  yet  take 
normal  speaking  voices  at 
random  and  produce  instant 
accurate  transcriptions.  But 


AndyTuerkle,  who  is  working 
on  the  project,  pointed  out: 
'We  don't  need  an  accurate 
transcription  for  our 
purposes.  Wefind  wecan  get 
useful  indexing  even  when  the 
error  rate  is  high.' 

Voice-recognition  soft¬ 
ware  requires  some  training 
on  individual  voices,  though 
developers  claim  training 
times  are  being  reduced 
from  an  hourormoreto  a 
few  seconds. 

The  experimental  system 
gets  round  this  bydoing 
two  passes  on  recordings 
of  new  voices,  using  the 
first  pass  as  a  training  session 
forthesecond.  It  can  spot 
when  voices  change,  and 
takes  about  10  minutes  to 


process  one  minute  of  speech. 

However,  there  is  no 
reason  in  principle whyit 
could  not  process  recordings 
even  faster  than  realtime 
speech.  'That's  a  hardware 
problem,' said  Tuerkle. 

Britain's  RIP  Bill  has  raised 
theprofileof  online 
surveillanceand  a  US 
congressional  committee  is 
investigating  an  FBI  device 
called  Carnivore  that  snoops 
on  emails.  TheCambridge 
system  could  bring  to  voice 
calls  the  same  degree  of 
comprehensive  monitoring 
that  is  possible  with  text. 

'0  bviouslythe  military  is 
interested  in  this  kind  of  thing,' 
said  Tuerkle.  'Butwearecon- 
centrating  on  the  indexing.' 


Linuxtakesa 
security  step 

A  group  of  Linux 

developers  has  begun 
an  ambitious  project  to 
identify  security  problems 
before  they  trouble  end  users. 

TheLinuxKernel  Auditing 
Project  aims  to  educate  Linux 
developers  on  how  to  write 
securecodeto  stayahead  of 
crackers  in  creating  a  secure 
operating  environment. 

Bryan  Paxton,  author  of 
the  project's  mission 
statement,  said:  'Certain 
proprietary  OSs  sit  around 
and  wait  for  a  security  bug  to 
cometo  them  and  not  go  to 
bug  themselves.  Linuxkernel 
developers  or  hackers  are 
logical  people,  and  realise 
that  Linuxis  not  perfect.' 

JOHN  LEYDEN,  VNUNET.COM 


Games  icon  honoured 


It's  a  law  of  life  that  yester¬ 
day's  iconoclastic  young 
thrusters  become  today's 
pillars  of  the  establishment. 

It  happened  with  rock 
musicians,  and  it  is  beginning 
to  happen  with  the  computer 
games  industry. 

The  man  looking  as  if  he 
has  stepped  out  of  his  own 
games  isTomb  Raider  creator 
Ian  Livingstone,  chairman  and 


founder  of  Eidos  Interactive. 
He  was  granted  an  honorary 
doctorate  of  technology  at 
D  u  n  d  ee' s  A  b  ert  a  y  U  n  i  ver  si  ty, 
where  students  can  gain  an 
M  Sc  and  BSc  in  computer 
games.  Former  students 
include  Lemmings  creator 
Dave  Jones. 

The  University  of  Essex 
also  offers  a  computer  games 
degree,  starting  this  October. 


Personal  Computer  World 


October  2000  • 


MOBILE  >  > 


PROCESSORS 


Chip  giant  launches  low- power  unit  as  vendors  fight  to  prolong  battery  life... 

Intel  focuses  on  low-power  range 


Intel's  new  700M  Hz  mobile  processor.  Power  drain  ranges 
upwards  from  a  claimed  sub-1  w  for  the500M  H  z  version  to  double 
that  for  the  750MHz  processor 


Intel  has  set  up  a  low- 
power  group  in  a  move 
that  signals  battery  drain  is 
challenging  speed  as  a  selling 
point  for  processors.  The 
companyalso  began  a  charm 
offensive  to  stress  the 
frugality  of  its  latest  mobile 
Pills,  oneof  which  is  said  to 
consume  less  than  lwin 
'average'  use. 

The  issue  was  highlighted 
early  this  year  when  start-up 
companyTransmeta 
launched  its  Crusoe 
processors,  with  a  claimed 
consumption  of  less  than  a 
watt.  Several  companies  have 
since  demonstrated  Crusoe- 
based  devices;  how  many  will 
reach  the  market  is  unclear, 
b  u  1 1  h  e  su  rge  of  i  n  terest  i  n 
Transmeta  showed  that  it  had 
touched  a  raw  nerve. 

AM  D  and  National 
Semiconductor  have  also 
sinceannounced  new  low- 
drain  processors,  and  AM  D 
is  reported  to  be  about  to 
launch  a  new  version  of  its 
PowerNow  power-saving 
technology. 

Don  MacDonald,  Intel's 
mobile-platform  marketing 
director,  told  IT  journalists  in 
London  that  Pills  already 
incorporated  three  battery¬ 
saving  technologies: 
SpeedStep,  which  switches 
down  linevoltageand 
clockrate during  battery 
operation;  Q  uickStart,  which 
puts  the  processor  into  a 
sleep  stateduringidletimes; 


and  'mobilevoltage 
positioning',  which  adjusts 
thevoltagedynamically. 

It  was  not,  MacDonald 
said,  Intel's  policyto  knock 
competitors,  but  he  did  feel 
moved  to  cite  a  claim  that 
Transmeta's  chips  would 
not  be  100  percent  Intel 
compatible. 

M  acDonald  admitted  that 
there  is  a  trade-off  between 
processing  power  and  battery 
life:  processor  design  can  be 
optimised  foroneorthe 
other.  The  fact  that 
'performance'  notebooks,  as 
opposed  to  sub-notebooks 
and  low-cost  slower  models, 
accounted  for  75  per  cent  of 
the  market,  showed  that 
peoplewanted  speed. 

But  he  agreed  that  there 


was  expected  to  be  a  surge  in 
demand  for  low-cost  webpad 
devices  of  the  type  targeted  by 
Transmeta  and  NatSemi. 

The  sales  figures  are  also 
distorted  bythefactthat 
many  powerful  notebooks  are 
bought  to  replace  desktop 
machines,  partly  because  they 
are  quieter.  And  they  are 
quieter  because  they  use  less 
power  and  thus  generate  less 
heat,  doing  away  with  the 
need  for  fans. 

A  trend  towards  designing 
fans  out  of  desktop  machines 
is  likely  to  be  accelerated  by 
the  latest  Macs  (see  page  40). 
Apple  is  making  a  major 
selling  point  out  of  thefact 
thattheyneed  no  fans. 

Noise,  as  Intel  itself  points 
out,  is  not  the  only  factor. 


Cutting  the  power 
consumption  of  PCscan 
make  a  considerable 
difference  to  the  electricity 
billsof  largecompanies. 

U  nderlying  the  new  focus 
on  wattage  is  the  fact  that 
hardware  performance  is 
currently  running  wayahead 
of  most  software  needs 
(games  excepted).  This 
maychange,  but  hardly  in 
the  near  future;  meanwhile 
mainstream  PC  buyers  are 
going  for  mid-range  machines 
rather  than  paying  a  premium 
for  processing  power  theydo 
not  need. 

People  are  already 
challenging  Intel's claimsfor 
its  latest  mobile  Pills,  the 
500M  Hz  version  being  said  to 
consume  less  than  a  watt  and 
the  750M  Hz  version  less  than 
2w.  Thisfrom  a  company 
that  used  to  boast  of  'low- 
power'  chips  consuming  up 
to  13w. 

The  different  figures  are 
partlydueto  definitions.  One 
often-cited  figure  is  for  the 
powerdrain  when  a  CPU  is 
run  continuouslyat  its 
maximum  numberof 
operations  per  second,  a 
figure  of  more  interest  to 
system  designers  than  users. 

It  is  hard  to  measure 
processor  power  consumption 
directly  under  real  working 
conditions.  SomeCPUsneed 
more  power-consuming 
support  chips  than  others. 

The  total  system 
consumption  is  what  counts 
and  the  processor  may 
account  for  less  than  a  third 
of  this -developers  are 
already  taking  a  long  hard 
lookat  theconsumption  of 
other  components  (see 
opposite) .  W  hat  does  seem 
certain  is  that  the  power 
debate  will  provide  new 
elements  for  obfuscation  by 
vendors- and  corresponding 
confusion  among  buyers. 

CLIVE  AKASS 


I A64  processor  delayed 


Intel  will  not  deliver  its  64bit  Itanium  chip 
as  planned  thisautumn,  thecompany 
has  admitted.  A  spokesman  for  Intel 
explained  that:  'Thetesting  of  the 
operating  system,  applications  and 
validation  is  taking  more  timethan 
previously  estimated.' 

He  said  early  systems  will  be  delivered  at 
the  end  of  the  year,  but  that  64bit  servers 


from  manymanufacturerswill  notship  until 
thefirst  half  of  next  year. 

Xephon  analyst  Chris  M  artin  said  people 
who  need  the  764bit  address  space  for  big 
databases  and  other  apps  would  wait  for  new 
servers  rather  than  buyolder  technology. 

'The main  impact ofthiswill  beon  Intel's 
own  revenue  stream,'  M  artin  said. 

JOHN  LEYDEN,  VNUNET.COM 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


MOBILE  DISPLAYS 


...and  researchers  look  at  how  they  can  cut  down  on  power  drain  from  displays 

Energy-saving  tactics  for  screens 


British  researchers  are 
developing  ways  of 
reducing  the  power  needs  of 
that  other  great  mobile 
battery-drainer:  the  display 
Oneapproach  could  also 
lead  to  flat-panel  wall  screens 
that  are  larger,  and  30  per 
cent  cheaper,  than  plasma 
panels  that  are  currently 
available  in  sizes  up  to  60in. 

Thefrugal  photo- 
luminescent  liquid  crystal 
(PLLCD)  system  could  also 
be  used  in  notebook  screens, 
according  to  Bob  King, 

CEO  of  developer  Screen 
Technology 

Normal  backlit  LCD 
screens  use  white  (that  is, 
broad  spectrum)  light  passing 
through  a  liquid-crystal 
matrixto  RGB  filters  that 
producea  colour  image  with 
a  narrow  angleof view.  The 
filters,  by  rejecting  some  of 
the  light,  are  inherently 
inefficient. 

The  PLLCD  screen  uses  a 
narrow-band  ultra-violet 
sourceand  replaces  the  filters 
with  a  screen  coated  with 
light-emitting  RGB  phosphor 
pixels  with  a  wideangleof 


view.  Thetechnology  was 
shown  off  at  an  exhibition  to 
mark  the  125th  anniversary  of 
Cambridge  University's 
engineering  department, 
where  it  wasfirst  developed. 

Screen  Technology  has 
developed  an  additional 
optical  layer  that  spreads  the 
image slightlyso  that  an  array 
of  LCD  panels  presents  a 
single  seamless  picture. 

It  is  on  these  large  displays 
thatthecompanyis 
concentrating.  King  believes 
notebook  battery  life  is  no 
longera  big  issue-  although 
having  arrived  in  Cambridge 
hotfoot  from  an  Intel  briefing 
on  mobile  processors  (see 
opposite),  I  was  inclined 
to  disagree. 

But 'the  acreage  of 
displays  that  will  becoming 
out  in  the  next  decade' will 
present  a  power  problem 
of  a  different  order, 
according  to  King.  He 
says  that  PLLCD  technology 
could  cut  the  national 
power  load  by  megawatts, 
with  corresponding 
ecological  benefits. 

The  defence  research 


Through  thick  and  thin 

Cambridge  3D  Display ;  as  its  name  suggests,  is  experimenting 
with  various  3D  techniques.  AtC  ambridge  U  niversity's 
exhibition  ( see  left)  it  showed  a  design  called  the  W  edge,  which 
uses  a  tapered  sheet  of  glass  to  produce  the  seemingly 
impossible:  a  flat  projection  screen.  The  image  is  beamed 
through  the  thick  edge  and  refracted  though  a  diffusing  screen 
to  form  a  display  of  up  to  50  in. 


establishment  D ERA  (see 
page42)  showed  a  small 
Zenithal  Bistable  Display 
(ZBD)  that  requires 
absolutely  no  power  to 
retain  an  image-  normal 
screens  need  refreshing  many 
times  a  second. 

TheZBD  uses  a 
microscopically  corrugated 
surface  over  a  liquid-crystal 
layer  with  the  geometry 
cunninglycontrived  to  allow 
crystals  to  flip  into  either  of 
two  stable  states. 

It  can  work  with 
backlighting,  though  power 
savings  are  greatest  with 
reflective  screens  -  as  much 
as  1,000  percent  in  the  case 
of  an  ebookdisplay,  which 
maynot  need  to  changefor 


LEP  in  the  dark  hits  a  glass  ceiling 


Displays  will  be 

revolutionised  the  day 
you  see  plastic  light  bulbs, 
according  to  DERA  fellow 
Guy  Bryan-Brown.  The 
reason  is  that  no-one  has 
come  up  with  a  plastic  that 
can  match  glass  for 
impermeability. 

All  plastics  leak  gas  and 
even  water.  One  screen 
technology  that  has  been 
held  back  as  a  result  was 
notably  absent  from  the 
exhibition.  Cambridge 
DisplayTechnology(CDT) 
uses  Light  Emitting  Polymers 
(LEP)  which  generate  light¬ 
like  LED  status  lights.  There 


has  been  a  lot  of  hype  about 
CDT's  potential  to  produce 
flexible  electronic  paper  but, 
following  a  recent  shake-up, 
forecasts  have  been  more 
conservative  -  especially 
about  timescales. 

ButCDT  hasjust 
demonstrated  a  full-colour 
2in  screen,  developed  with 
Seiko,  which  should  go  on 
sale'within  a  coupleof  years'. 
This  breakthrough  involved 
getting  polymers  that  emit 
red,  green  and  bluewithin  the 
required  voltage  constraints. 

H  owever  the  polymers  are 
water-sensitive,  which  is  why 
CDT  is  still  stuck  with  glass. 


minutes  at  a  time,  according 
to  DERA  fellow  Guy  Bryan- 
Brown. 

Savings  are  large  even  with 
rapidlymoving  images 
because  only  the  changing 
pixels  need  to  beaddressed. 
Filters  can  be  used  to  provide 
colour. 

TheZBD  reflective  screen 
turned  out  to  be  unexpectedly 
bright,  Bryan-Brown  said. 
Certainly  it  looked 
impressively  crisp  compared 
with  that  of  a  Palm  Pilot 
which,  hesaid,  was  using 
expensive  compensatory 
layers  and  extra  power  to 
achieve  its  contrast. 

A  final  advantage  is  that 
the  screens  can  beflexible. 

Not  foldable  like  paper,  but 
capableof  being  scrolled  out 
of  a  tubelikea  spring-back 
projection  screen.  'For  the 
first timeyou  could  havea 
device  with  a  screen  larger 
than  its  footprint,'  Bryan- 
Brown  said. 

DERA  does  not  intend  to 
make  the  same  mistake  with 
ZBD  that  it  made  with  an 
earlier  breakthrough  -  active 
matrixdisplays.  Thecompany 
failed  to  takeout  a  patent 
before  university 
collaborators  at  Dundee 
published  a  paperon  the 
technology.  'If  we  had  done 
thepaperworkwewould  be 
£30m  a  year  better  off,' 
Bryan-Brown  said. 

See  also  T im  B  ajarin,  page  48 
Screen  Technology 
01223  875550 
www.dera.gov.uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


MOBILE  >  > 


In  another  look  at  low-power  futuristic  displays,  Tim  Bajarin  unveils  some  US  developments 

A  new  chapter  for  electronic  paper 


Two  pieces  of  technology 
that  I  found  while 
roaming  around  Silicon  Valley 
recently  have  gone  into  my 
'must watch' file.  Onecould 
havea  majorimpacton  the 
way  we  view  digital 
information  and  theother 
(see  below)  could  finally 
make  Linuxmainstream. 

Imaginea  sheet  of  paper 
showing  news  stories  that 
are  updated  wirelessly 
throughout  the  day,  so  that 
eachtimeyou  pick  it  up,  the 
news  is  always  current.  0  r, 
how  about  a  book  that 
receives  new  content  over  the 
air:  onedevicethat  replaces 
the  hundreds  of  books  on 
your  shelves. 

Welcometo  thefutureof 
electronic  paper  and  ink.  One 
approach  to  the  idea  comes 
from  a  companycalled  E-Ink, 
which  has  had  an  electronic 
paper  sign  in  useformostof 
the  last  year  in  a  shop  near  its 
Cambridge,  M  assachusetts, 
headquarters. 

The  company's  electronic 


'ink',  which  can  be  printed  on 
nearlyanysurface,  uses 
millions  of  tiny  microcapsules 
containing  white  particles 
suspended  in  a  dark  dye.  An 
electric  field  pushes  the 
particles  to  one  or  other  end 
ofthecapsuleto  producea 
whiteora  black  spot.  The 
ink  is  printed  onto  a  plastic 
sheet  that  is  laminated  to  a 
transistorised  layer  that  drives 
the  pixel  patterns. 

Xerox,  however,  is  taking  a 


different  approach  at  its 
Palo  Alto  Research  Center 
in  Silicon  Valley,  where 
scientist  Nick Sheriden 
has  been  working  on  an 
electronic-paper  project  since 
coming  up  with  theconcept 
15  years  ago. 

His  e-Paper  uses  what  is 
officially  called  a  Gyricon 
sheet,  a  layer  of  millions  of 
bi-chromal  balls  sandwiched 
between  two  sheets.  The  balls 
changecolourunderan 


applied  electric  field  to  create 
a  paper-like  digital  display. 

N  ow  Xeroxis  partnering  with 
3M  to  create  some  of  the 
first  applications. 

Xeroxwill  be  using  this 
first-generation  e-Paper  in 
shop  displays  but,  like  E-Ink, 
thecompanybelievesithas 
thedigital  display  technology 
ofthefuture. 

Both  technologies  are 
strictly  two-colour  and  have 
very  slow  refresh  rates,  but 
overtime,  executives  of  Xerox 
and  E-Ink  believe  that  they 
will  beableto  maketheir 
products  multi-colour  and 
deliver  much  faster  refresh 
rates.  At  sometime  in  the 
future thiswould  allowthem 
to  display  not  only  simple 
text,  but  perhaps  even  moving 
images  on  these  new 
electronic  paper  displays. 

Thedisplayswill  becheap 
and  demand  little  power.  But 
in  truth,  we  are  years  away 
from  seeing  electronic  paper 
or  electronic  ink  reaching 
theirfull  potential. 


Linux  gets  a  facel  ift  f o  r  th  e  d  eskto  p 


The  second  technology  of 
note  will  finally  put  a 
truly  consumer-oriented 
interface  on  Linux.  Up  to 
now,  Linux  has  been  largely 
an  operating  system  for 
servers  and  industrial- 
strength  applications.  For 
years  I  have  been  saying  that 
Linux  will  never  make  it  big  on 
the  desktop  unless  someone 
creates  a  great  interface  for  it. 
N  ow  it  appears  that  Silicon 
Valley  start-up,  Eazel,  has 
done  just  that. 

Eazel  was  founded  by 
Apple  veterans  M  ike  Boich 
and  Andy  H  ertzfeld  and  aims 
to  change thefaceof  Linux. 
Andy  H  ertzfeld  is  the  better 
known  ofthetwo  as  he 
designed  and  implemented  a 


large  portion  of  the  Mac¬ 
intosh  system  software, 
including  the  User  Interface 
Toolbox  Boich  wasthefirst 
M  ac  software  evangelist  and 
is  credited  with  getting  the 
first  third-party  applications 
created  for  the  Mac. 

Eazel  has  come  up  what  it 
calls  the  Eazel  Nautilusl.O, 
which  blends  a  graphical  user 
interface  with  a  powerful 
embedded  web  browser 
based  on  Netscape's Mozilla. 
ItdefinitelytakesGUI 
standards  up  a  notch. 
Nautilus  1.0  displays  files 
by  using  representations  of 
their  contents  (image,  text, 
music,  etc),  which  allows 
users  to  identifyfiletypeand 
content  without  having  to 


chooseoropen  applications. 

Virtual  search  folders 
enable  users  to  immediately 
locate  related  files,  based  on 
user-defined  relationships, 
regardless  of  their  location  in 
the  Li n ux d  i recto ry  stru ctu re. 
This  new  Ul  even  allows 
zooming  onto  anyfileto  gain 
a  better  view  of  what's  inside, 
a  feature  that  sets  it 
apart  from  all  other 
GUIson  themarket. 

It  is  quite  possible 
thatthevarious 
innovationswithin 
Nautilusl.O  will 


A  revamped  interface 
could  bring  L  inux  onto 
the  desktop 


take  the  market  by  storm 
and  giveLinuxthetypeof 
interface  needed  to  help 
it  move  beyond  the  back 
office  and  onto  the  desktop 
in  thefuture. 

A  public  beta  of  Nautilusis 
scheduled  for  late  August  and 
thefinal  version  is  due  to  ship 
in  early  2001. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Technical  and  political  problems  could  stall  the  progress  of  ASPs  and  AD  SLf  warns  Gordon  Laing 


want  my  ASP  now 


■—|  lnthelongterm,all 

applicationsarelikelyto  be 
provided  as  a  service  over  the 
I  nternet.  N  ot  my  words,  but 
thoseof  aM  icrosoft  white 
paper  detai  I  i  ng  the  concepts 
behind  its .N  ET  platform. 
Wherever  you  areand 
whatever you'reusing, you'll  beabletofireup  aversion 
of  Office,  edit  your  documents,  check  emails,  change 
yourschedule,thenfindthisupdated  information  on 
the  next  device  you  use.  It's  not  rocket  science,  as  your 
information  was  never  on  thedevice;  since  it's  all  hosted 
remotely,  your  data  exists  on  someone  el  se's  computer. 

A  coupleof  decades  ago,  this  wasthetheory  behind 
all  dumb  terminalsthat  networked  into  a  large  main 
server.  T oday  the  network  is  the  I  nternet  and  the 
terminals  areal  most  any  suitable  information 
appliance.  Such  outsourcing  of  data  and  programs  is 
donebyApplication  ServiceProviders  (ASPs),  and 
cl  earl  y  th  at's  th  e  way  M  i  crosoft's  h  ead  i  ng. 

Remoteapplication  hosting isasound  concept, 
wheretheuser  never  hasto  worry  about  purchasing, 
deploying,  maintaining  or  upgrading  applications,  as 
they  onlyever  exist  on  theASP'sown  server.  You  merely 
renttimeon  them  as  you  need  it. 

Theimmediateproblemthatspringsto 
mind  isyour  connection  to  thehosting 
services.  You  need  permanently  connected, 
fast  services  likeADSL.  Then  there's  being  tied 
intotheASP.  If  it's  got  your  data,  then  you've 
got  to  conti  nue  renti  ng  its  services,  and  there's 
thejustifiableparanoiathatthenetworkor 
your  communications  may  fail  at  a  critical  moment. 

Thebiggest  problem,  though,  isfinding  relevant  ASP 
services  for  you  and  me.  Sure,  there  are  plenty  of  ASPs 
serving  worthy  high-end  applications  likeenterprise 
resourceplanning  and  sal esforce automation,  but  how 
many  small  or  homeoffices  want  that,  or  even 
understand  what  it's  all  about?l  believe  there's  an 
enormous  market  for  ASP  services  targeted  at  small 
businesses  and  individualsthat  cut  through  thetypical 
enterpriseterminologyand  deliver  something  useful. 

Fired  up,  I  recently  went  on  thesearch  for  such 
servi  ces  an  d  came  u  p  al  most  enti  rel  y  bl  an  k .  T  h  ere  were 
loads  of  frightening  enterpriseASP  services  I  simply 
couldn't  get  my  head  around,  but  next  to  nothing 
targeted  at  me,  my  websiteand  my  business. Then  I 


cameacrossNetStore(www.net  store.net),  which,  while 
offering  a  multitudeof  ASP  services  I  couldn't  quite 
understand,  also  provided  Internet  backup. 

Oneaccountlaterandl  had  a  small  backup  utility  on 
myPC,  looking  not  dissimilar  totheoneM  icrosoft 
supplies  with  Windows.Thedifference  was  that,  once 
activated,  mypreciousdata  was  squirted  out  over  the 
I  nternet  to  N  etSto  re's  secure  servers.  With  my  ADSL 
connection  I  transferred  a  12MB  folder  of  572 
documentsin  aboutthreeminutes,  with  subsequent 
updates  occurring  almost  instantly.  Even  when  myADSL 
wasplaying  up,  my  standard  56K  dialup  connection 
delivered  thesmall  updates  in  less  than  five  seconds. 

I  tryto  back  up  regularly,  but  worryinglyonlyget  round 
to  doing  it  every  coupleof  weeks.With  NetStore, I  was 
automatical  ly  backi  ng  up  several  ti  mes  a  day  whenever  I 
was  connected  to  thel  nternet  delivering  emailsor 
browsing  theweb-  convenient,  easy  and  effective. 

This  is  what  we  want  from  ASPs  and  this  appears  to  be 
what.NET  will  offer  over  the  next  few  years.  Myonlyfear 
ishavingyourdataorapplicationstied  intoorlimited  to 
a  particular  provider.  BT  Cellnet  recently  had  its  wrists 
slapped  for  operating  a  WAP  gateway  closed  to  anything 
other  than  BT'sown  content.  I  asked  BT  if  I  could  tryout 
its  0  penWorl  d  ASP  servi  ces  usi  ng  my  D  emon  I  nternet 


I  asked  BT  if  I  could  try  out  its  OpenWorld  ASP 
services,  but  THEY  WERE  ONLY  AVAILABLE 
to  OpenWorld  ADSL  subscribers 


ADSL  connection,  but  it  said  they  wereonlyavailableto 
0  pen  World  AD  SL  su  bscri  bers.  And  the  more  I  learn 
about  network  address  translation  used  by  many  ADSL 
subscriptions,  themorel  fear  that  thething  protecting 
you  maypreventyou  from  using  servi  ces  you're  forking 
out  at  least  £40  a  month  to  experience. 

Whileprovidershaveto  add  valueto  services  and 
protect  their  investments,  what  could  damageASPsand 
ADSL  beforetheyeven  get  started  arerestrictionsthat 
prevent  peoplefrom  using  theservicesthey  want.  Atthe 
dawn  of  what  could  proveto  bethemost  significant  leap 
in  personal  information  services,  let's  pleasesort  out  the 
politics  and  technical  issues  that  could  sink  them  before 
they've  even  got  in  the 
water.  I  want  my  ASP. 


gordonl@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000 


57 


INSIDE  INFORMATION 


Barry  Fox  questions  the  widsom  of  the  watermark  that  SDMI  insists  goes  on  all  DVD -A  recordings 

Thesound  of  silence 


Readers  wereoutraged  at  the 
news  that  a  British  company 
had  developed  a  system  to  curb 
CD  copying  by  blocking 
playback  on  a  CD -ROM  drivel 
suspect  few  will  wel cornea  plan 
to  monkey  with  thesuper  hi-fi 
sound  availablefromthenew 
DVD-Audio  and  Super-Audio  CD  systems.  But  they  can 
takeheart  from  what  happened  to  theCD  copy-blocker. 

U  K  company  CD  ilia  is  best  known  for  SafeDisc,  which 
has  been  used  to  copy-protect  over  30  mi  1 1  ion  C  D  -RO  M  s. 
AudioLock  added  spurious  ROM  sub-codes  to  an  audio 
CD  thatmakesaPC  CD-ROM  drive  refuseto  play  it. 

0  ncethe  news  was  out,  PC  users  warned  that  Audio- 
Lock  would  stop  them  legitimately  listening  to  CDs 
whileworking, and  ripping CDsontothehard  drive. 

M  acrovision,  which  specialises  in  video  copyprotection, 
bought  C  D  i  I  la  and  wen  tbacktothed  rawi  n  g  board . 

AudioLock  is  now  Safe4udio  and  M  acrovision  assures 
that  processed  discs  will  playonaROM  driveand 
compress  i  nto  M  P3.  H  owever,  the  M  P3  copy  must  meet 
therequirementssetbytheSecureDigital  Music  Initiative 
(SDM  l)and  not  copy  through  further  digital  generations. 

M  acrovision  wasdueto  run  extensive,  but 
unannounced,  field  trials  in  the  US  around 
May/June,  so  if  you  havecomeacrossaCD 
that  behaves  oddly,  don't  suffer  in  silence. 
Askingforarefundisal  ways  t  h  e  best  way  to 
be  surethe  message  gets  through. 

TheSDMI  is, of  course, already  behind 
theschemeto  watermark  music  on  the 
Internet.Theanalog  waveform  is  altered 
slightly  so  that  it  conveys  codethat  signifies 'copyright 
sou  rce'  and  tri  ggers  copy  control  s  i  n  futu  re  recorders. 

Last  summer  theSDM  I  asked  4C  Entity(an  IBM , 
Intel,  M  atsushita/ Panasonic  and  Toshiba  consortium) 
to  test  several  watermarking  systems  and  recommend 
the  best.  TheVerancesystem  (developed  bytwo  US 
companies,  Aris  and  Solana)  won.  An  encoder  analyses 
themusic  waveform  and  makesslightalterationsthata 
lookup  tabledecodes asdigital  bits.Themark  must  be 
sufficiently  robust  to  surviveM  P3  codi  ng  and  I  nternet 
transmission,  butsubtleenough  to  remain  inaudible. 

The4C  tests  were  done  in  US  studios  by  themajor 
record  companies,  with  50 'golden  ear' listeners. The 
SD  M I  then  went  a  wholelot  further  and  agreed  with  the 
major  record  labels  and  DVD  Forum  that  theVerance 


system  should  also  beused  to  watermark  super  hi-fi 
recordingson  DVD -Audio.  From  October  all  DVD -A 
playersmust  have  Verance  circuitry  built  in.  This  is  good 
for  Verance,  which  stands  to  earn  huge  royal  ties,  but 
what  does  it  do  to  themusic? 

Weestablished  thatthegolden  eartestshad  been 
conducted  with  recordings  madeand  played  at  far  lower 
quality  than  the  192KHz  sampling  and  24bit  coding  on 
which  DVD -A  will  besold. TheSDM  1, 4C  and  Verance 
would  not  identify  thegolden  ear  listeners  and  passed 
technical  questions  round  I  ike  a  party  parcel. 

Grammy-award  winning  recording  engineer  Tony 
Faulkner  decided  enough  was  enough  and  used  audio 
engineering  news  groups  on  the  I  nternet  to  warn  that 
DVD -Audio  (and  probably  also  the  high-end  Super- 
Audio  CD  system  developed  by  Sony  and  Philips)  were 
to  becompromised  by  an  in  adequately  tested  analog 
watermarking  system. 

The  resu  1 1  was  a  h  ast i  I  y  ar ran  ged  seri  es  of  tests  h  el  d 
at  theSony/CBS  Studios  in  London  in  earlyjuly.  It  was 
hard  to  takethem  seriously.  N  o-onefrom  4C  bothered 
to  turn  up.Over30UKengineersdidturn  up, but  were 
rewarded  with  old  analog  recordings  played  off  a  digital 
hard  disk.  Someengineersjust  said  themusic  wastoo 
poorly  recorded  to  givemeaningful  results;  others 


The  GOLDEN  EAR  TESTS  had  been  conducted 
with  recordings  made  and  played  at  far  lower  quality 
than  that  on  which  DVD -A  will  be  sold 


showed  they  could  hearthemark,  even  though  sound 
qu  al  i ty  was  f ar  bel  o w  th  e  I  evel  of  D VD  -A  an  d  SA-C  D .  I 
sat  in  as  an  observer  and  could  not  missthefact  that  the 
test  rig  relied  on  a  laptop  with  a  hard  drive  that  whirred 
variably,  generating  a  complex  audio  spectrum  that  was 
louder  than  thequieter  music  passages. 

Although  theDVD  Forum  still  insists  that  all  DVD-A 
players  must  have  watermark  detectors,  itisuptothe 
record  companies  to  decide  whether  to  tamper  with 
their  waveforms.  And  they  save  money  on  royalties  if 
they  don't. 

Whilethetestswerein  progress  a  thief  brokein 
overnightand  stoleaSun  server.  Was  this  an  attack  on 
SDM  I  or  an  opportunist 
coincidence?Timewill  tell 


barryf@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000 


STRAIGHT  TALKING 


USINESS  MATTERS  >  > 


Working  in  the  country  doesn't  necessarily  mean  missing  out.  Brian  Clegg  envies  Ezoka's  location 

Thejoysof  rural  business 


Thehigh-tech  world  of 
ebusiness  has  had  an 
unexpected  impact  on  therural 
economy.  Rather  than 
snapping  up  me-too  city 
offices,  a  number  of  hot 
ecompaniesareoptingforthe 
country  life. 

A  good  example i s  busi ness-to-busi ness  su ppl ier 
Ezoka.com.  Ezoka  applies  the'let's  buy  it'  approach  to 
business  essentials,  but  with  a  twist.  Wherecustomers  of 
theconsumersitehaveto  wait  until  there's  a  critical  mass 
of  buyers,  Ezoka  customers  get  bu  I  k-buyi  ng  benefits  u  p 
front.  Therearethen  further  rebates  if  enough  customers 
want  thesame  products.  And  theearlieryou  committo 
buying,  the  better  the  rebate  you  get. 

Ezoka  isn't  a  garageoutfit.  With  £4.5m  in  backing  it 
could  have  set  up  anywhere,  but  thistechnologically 
sophisticated  eretai Ier  of  anythingfrom  PCsto 
insuranceoperatesfrom  theback  roomsof  a  pub. 
TheTrueHeart  lookslikeatypical  villageinn.  Situated 


There's  something  special  about  working  over  a 
VILLAGE  PUB.  In  the  afternoon,  the  ice-cream 
van  calls  and  the  office  empties  out  into  the  street 


in  thepretty  Wiltshire  villageof  Bishopstone,  it'sa 
stone's  throw  from  thepond,thechurch  and  thetiny 
village  school.  Butin  whatwereuntil  recently  a  store 
room  and  afunction  room,  the  Ezoka  development 
team  works  on  thelatest  web  technology. 

Thisuniquelocation  can  bequitea selling  point. 

I  spoketo  Ezoka'schief  technology  officer,  Simon 
Warrick.  Wemet  in  theEzoka  office,  but  quickly  moved 
totheTrueHeart'sbar,  which  isconnected  directly  to 
theofficesbyan  internal  door. 

'Working  hereisvery  attractive, 'explained  Warrick. 
‘Business accommodation  and  housing  issignificantly 
cheaper.  There's  a  lot  less  traffic  than  there  is  in  a 
town  -  you  can  I  i  ve20  miles  away  and  still  behere 
in  30  minutes.  And  yet  I  can  get  to  our  marketing 
offices  in  central  London  in  an  hour  and  a  half, 
maybeonly  half  an  hour  morethan  from  thesuburbs,' 
headded. 

Most  of  al  I,  theemployees  enjoy  the  relaxed 


environment.  'There's  no  need  to  dress  up,'  said  Warrick 
who  wasdressed  in  shorts.  'Lotsof  peoplewould  liketo 
work  this  way.  There's  something  special  about  working 
over  a  village  pub.  We  can  even  get  breakfast  and  pizzas 
delivered  straight  to  ourdesks.  In  theafternoon,theice- 
cream  van  cal  Is  and  thewholeoffice  empties  out  into 
the  village  street.' 

When  Ezoka's  development  team  wassetupin 
Bishopstonethereweresomeconcerns  about  the 
difficulties  of  getting  connections  in  such  arural 
setting,  but  the  reality  has  proved  to  bea  pleasant 
surprise.  Setting  up  leased  lines  and  ISDN  has  been  no 
problem  (though  ADSL  maytakelonger).  In  fact, 

Ezoka  isfarfrom  beingtheonly  high-tech 
establ  i  sh  ment  i  n  th  i  s  apparentl  y  si  eepy  h  am  I  et .  T  here 
areso  manysmall  operationswith  second  lines  and 
ISDN  in  th  e  vi  1 1  age  th  at  th  e  I  ocal  telecoms  engineer 
refersto  it  as  Silicon  Pond. 

Perhaps theonlydisadvantageof  therural  location 
is  the  lack  of  public  transport.  Having  your  own  vehicle 
(unless  you  livein  the  same  village)  is  a  necessity  for  the 
rural  economy,  though  interestingly  50  per 
cent  of  the  Ezoka  team  have  motorcycles 
ratherthan  cars,  perhaps  sayingsomething 
about  thesort  of  people  who  appreciate 
this  type  of  lifestyle.  Uni  ike  a  town  centre 
location,  though,  the  pub  always  has  plenty 
of  parking  space. 

Weheara  lot  in  thenews about  rural 
decline.  VentureslikeEzokashow that  it  isnotjust 
possiblefor  IT  togivetherural  economy  a  boost,  but  it's 
actu al  I  y  desi  rab I  e f  o  r  everyo  n e  i  n  vo I  ved .  T  h  ere's  a  great 
atmospherein  aplacelikeEzokathatyoudon'tgetin  a 
face!  ess  city  office.  But  likeanybusiness  solution,  there 
can  beproblems. 

Ezokahasbeen  luckyin  getting thelT  connections. 

M  any  small  and  medium-sized  businesses  in  rural 
locationsfind  it  difficult  or  expen  si  veto  get  anything 
morethan  a  bog-standard  phone  line.  And  even  Ezoka's 
paradiseisunderthreat.Thecompanyhasoutgrown  its 
accommodation  and  is  looking  to  moveon  from  the 
True  Heart  -  but  is  making  every  effort  to  find  another 
village-based  homeinstead  of  theeasy  option  of  a 
busi  ness  park  or  a  city  centre  site. 

Despitethelimitations,  though,  it's  time  many 
more  high-tech  companies  wereconsideringthereal 
benefits  of  getting  out  into 
the  country.  Ooh  arr. 


brianc@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000 


As  N  ik  Rawlinson  takes  the  helm  of  this  column,  he  proposes  a  safety  tax  to  protect  us  from  viruses 

Don  your  Internet  condom 


I'vefinallydonetheresponsible 
thing.  It's  monthsoverdue,  but 
at  last  I've  in  stalled  some  virus 
protection  at  home.  I 'm  sick  of 
peoplewith  avictim  mentality 
who  wingewhen  they're  hit  by 
infected  files  and  I'm  determined 
not  to  beoneofthem. 

The  software  scanned  mydrivesand  gavemeadean 
bill  of  health,  so  I 'm  counting  myself  lucky,  but  it  could 
so  easily  have  been  very  different.  In  themonth  or  so 
sincel  last  installed  Windows  I've  received  around  200 
emails, downloaded  countlessfilesand  visited  so  many 
websites  I've  got  mo  re  coo  kies  in  mycachethan  my 
kitchen,  but  thankful  ly  noneof  them  contai  ned  any 
fragments  of  maliciouscode. 

I'm  luckyin  other  ways,  too,  though  - 1  managed  to 
get  my  hands  on  thesoftware for  free.  It  was  completely 
legit, and  no  piracy orCD  burners wereinvolved,  but 
had  I  had  to  pay  for  it,  I  haveto  ask  myself  if  I 'd  have 
bot  h  ered .  Af  ter  al  I ,  vi  ru  s  software  isn'tmuchfun,isit? 


Without  virus  protection  it's  not  just  my  data  I'm 
risking,  it's  that  0  F  ALL  MY  FRIENDS  and  do 
I  really  want  to  make  that  embarrassing  call? 


You  can't  passarainySunday afternoon  playing 
networked  Vi  ruStomper  with  your  mates.  You  can't  use 
i  t  to  p rod u  ce  b i  rt h d ay  cards  o r  a  repo rt  f  o  r  wo  rk ,  o r  to 
sendemailsto  friends.  Let'sfaceit:  virus  protection  is 
boringand  unlessitfinds  anything  amiss  all  itseemsto 
do  issitthereslowingdown  your  PC.  In  short,  most  of 
us  need  to  havesomesortof  an  incentive  to  install  it, 
and  all  too  often  that  incentive  is  when  we've  been  bitten 
bythebug.  Bug-busting  software  house  McAfee  puts  the 
number  of  viruses  floating  around  the  I  nternet  at 
53,000,  with  moreappearing  everyday.  So  it's  not 
surprising  that  if  you've  been  lucky  and  not  been  bitten 
yet,  there's  a  good  chance  you  know  someone  who  has. 

I  spent  an  afternoon  a  cou  pie  of  weekends  ago 
reinstalling  Windows  on  afriend'sPC  after  its  boot 
sector  had  been  nibbled  away  bysomemalevolent  code. 
And  thefirst  thing  hedid  thevery  next  day?  H  ewent  out 
and  bought  somevirus software.  Butwhyshould  he 
haveto?  Surely  it  should  be  free. 


Virus  protection  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  choice;  it's 
a  point  of  social  responsibility.  If  I  get  an  electronic 
i  nfection  there's  a  good  chance  I  'I I  pass  it  straight  on  to 
everyone  in  my  address  book.  Without  virus  protection 
it's  not  just  my  data  I'm  risking,  it's  that  of  all  my  friends 
and  do  I  really  want  to  haveto  makethat  embarrassing 
cal  I ,  exp  I  ai  n  i  n  g  wh  at  h  as  h  ap  pen  ed  ?  Vi  ru  s  scan  n  ers  are 
I  nternet  condoms,  and  we  should  perhaps  consider  the 
risks  associated  with  using  neither  to  bemoreorlessthe 
same,  offspring  considerations  aside,  of  course. 

For  this  reason,  I'm  proposinganewtax,asafetytax 
to  belevied  on  everyonewho  usesthenet.Afiverayear 
oughttodo  it,  and  it  would  be  collected  through  your 
I SP,  paid  directly  to  an  independent  international  body 
to  pay  for  two  things.  Thefirst  instalment  would  be 
used  to  set  up  ataskforceto  writethenext  generation  of 
virus  protection  software.  Its  remit  would  be  simple- 
first,  it  should  be  small  enough  that  until  weall  have 
unmetered  access  those  who  payfortheircallswon't  be 
put  off  downloading,  and  second,  it  should  be  freely 
distributed.Theremainderof  thefund  will  beused  to 
run  aname-and-shamecampaign. 

It  isasmall  number  of  companies  whose 
products  aresusceptibletothegreatest 
number  of  virus  attacks,  and  it's  those 
companiesthat  are  best  placed  to  fight 
back.  They,  after  al  I ,  have  access  to  the 
source codethat  sits  behind  their  fancy 
buttonsand  toolbars.  Each  timea  new 
vi  rus  crops  u  p  the  body  wou  I  d  approach  the  affected 
companyand  makeit  a  standard  financial  offer, say 
£10,000,  to  cover  thetimespent  writing  a cureto  update 
thefree scanning  software.  If  thecompany  agrees,  it  gets 
the  money.  If  not,  a  banner  ad  is  created  to  highlight  its 
social  i  rresponsi  bi  I  ity.  This  wi  1 1  run  within  thescanning 
software,  ensuring  thewholeworld  sees  it.  I'm  not 
den  yi  ng  that  the  blamefor  viruses  lies  squarely  with 
those  who  writethem,  but  if  thepeoplebest  placed  to 
fight  back  don't  chip  in  and  help  out,  they're  costing  us 
money  byforcing  usto  buy  remedies. 

I  doubt  this'll  happen  soon,  if  ever,  so  in  the 
meantime,  do  thedecent  thing.  Point  your  clicker 
at  http://antivirus.cai.com/  and  hitthedownload 
button  for  some  gratis  social  responsibility.  If  you're 
running  aconsumer  version  of  Windows  it  might 
save  you  some  heartache  in  the  months  to  comeand, 
best  of  al  I ,  the  u  pd ates  are 
free  too. 


nik_rawlinson@vnu.co.uk 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000 


Send  your  letters  to: 

The  Editor,  Personal  Computer  World 
VN U  House,  32-34  Broadwick Street 
London  W1A2HG 
or  email  >  letters@pcw.co.uk 
orfax  >020  7316  9313 

U  nless  otherwise  stated,  letters  sent  to  the  editor,  PC  VI  team  or 
contributors  will  be  considered  for  publication.  Letters  may  be 
edited  for  clarity  or  length.  Views  expressed  in  the  letters  are  those 
of  the  author  and  not  necessarily  those  of  the  editorial  team. 


WIN  A  TAXAN  MONITOR! 

Each  month  we  are  offering  a 
19in  Taxan  Ergovision  975 
TCO  99  monitor  to  the  author  of 
the  Letter  of  the  M  onth. 

For  the  complete  range  of  Taxan 
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please  include  a  full  postal  address 
for  delivery.  An  email  address  alone 
is  not  sufficient. 


You  won’t  regret  it. 


HEAVY  BREATHERS  CUT  OFF 

Along  with  about  750  other  'breathe 
freely'  Internet  users,  I  was  informed  that 
I  was  to  be  barred  from  using  the  service 
as  of  1pm  on  Wednesday,  26  July  2000. 

I  received  notification  byemail  on 
Sunday,  23  Julythat  the  service  would  be 
removed  due  to  'excessive  use',  although 
this  was,  and  continues  to  be,  undefined. 
The  company  is  using  thefollowing  part 
of  itsTermsand  Conditionsforthe 
breathe  freely  service  as  justification : 

'Thetermsand  conditionsof the 
breathefreelyserviceallow  us  to 
d  i sco  n  n ect  u sers  if  we  feel  t h a 1 1 h ei  r  I evel 
of  use  puts  our  ability  to  supply  the 
service  at  risk.' 

The  subscription  fee  (£50,  paid  in 
advance)  will  only  be  refunded  if  users 
prove  they  are  using  the  breathe  0845 
Internet  access  service  by  submitting 
their  itemised  telephone  bills  to  breathe. 

At  no  point  have  I  been  made  aware 
of  any  over-use  of  the  service,  which  I  can 
onlyuseat  home.  I  usea  'normal' 
subscription  servicefrom  Global  Internet 
when  using  my  laptop  to  access  the  Inter¬ 
net  elsewhere,  or  when  a  high  reliability 
and  performance  connection  is  required. 


LETTER  OF  THE  MONTH 


ACCESS  ALL  AREAS 

Alan  Aitchison  in  his  letter  (PCI/I/  September  2000)  exemplifies  why  personal 
computers  (and  IT  generally)  have  only  penetrated  two  homes  in  10.  It's  because 
'specialised'  PCs,  are  complicated,  difficult  to  use  and  over-powered  for  most 
people's  uses.  How  many  non-IT  people  can  be  bothered  to  mess  around  with 
config.sys  or  autoexec,  bat  just  to  get  a  gameto  play?  No  hassle  with  a  PlayStation 
-  put  in  the  disc  and  close  the  lid. 

IT  will  onlybecomean  enabling  force  when  it  becomes  as  simple  as  theTV- 
when  the  so-called  couch  potatoes  can  check  their  bank  balance,  search  the  British 
Library,  or  vote  electronically  anywhere,  anyplace,  anytime.  Just  because 
something  becomes  simple  and  accessible  to  all  doesn't  make  it  a  bad  thing.  Just 
becausel'm  usingON  Digital'semail  serviceto  write  this  doesn't  mean  myPII-350 
is  redundant  -  I'm  just  using  different  tools  for  different  jobs. 

Pervasive  IT  will  be  good  forthecommunity-  IT  that  doesn't  have  to  befiddled 
with  to  get  it  to  work  will  become  part  of  everyday  life.  People  will  be  ready  for  the 
e-ageand  perhaps  that  is  what's  worrying  the  Alan  Aitchisons  of  this  world.  Could  it 
be  that  heand  manyin  our  industryare  more  worried  about  losing  their  mystique 
than  thefuture  price  of  a  PC?  If  IT  becomes  so  accessible,  what  will  he  have  to  offer? 

DAVID  SANDERS 


H  aving  emailed  the  breathe  billing 
department  on  three  occasions  and  not 
received  a  replyor  return  phone  call,  I 
called  the  national  rate  number.  During 
a  35-minute  conversation,  I  was  told 
that  'the  decision  is  final'  and  myonly 
course  of  action  was  to  write  to  the  CEO 
who  would  read  mycomments.  The 
company  seems  totally  inflexible  and 
committed  to  withdrawing  the  service 
from  a  large  number  of  users,  who  are 
using  it  to  a  greater  extent  than  breathe 
determines  to  be  the  norm. 

The  level  of  service  and  performance 
provided  when  the  breathe  freely  service 
is  operational  is,  I  feel,  acceptable  for  the 
charge  incurred.  I  would  be  happy  to 
continue  using  it,  should  I  beallowed  to, 
but  feel  I  should  makethe  wider  Internet 
community  aware  of  the  above  business 
practices  and  it  is  the  end  user  who  will 
loseout  in  thelong  run. 

ROBIN  DOWNS 

BREATHE.COM  replies  > 

The  terminations  by  breathe  of 500  of  its 
'breathe  freely'  user  connections  was  not  an  easy 
decision  for  us  to  make.  T he  difficult  decision  i/i/as 
made  due  to  the  action  of  a  few  affecting  the 
service  for  the  majority. 

A I though  not  all  of  the  users  terminated  were 
clocking  up  over  1 6  hours  a  day  those  who  have 
been  cut  off  were  using  the  service  enough  to 
prevent  other  users  being  able  to  access  the 
Internet  via  breathe. 

In  line  with  breathe' s  policy  to  deliver  quality 
Internet  access  to  all,  these  steps  have  been  taken 
to  ensure  that  this  promise  can  be  kept  by 
removing  the  minority  of  users  whose  usage  was 
extreme.  M  any  of  those  accounts  terminated  were 
business  users,  but  regrettably  some  were 
consumers  with  high-usage  requirements. 

A II  affected  users  will  be  refunded  their  £50 
subscription  fee,  which  can  be  claimed  either  as  a 
direct  deposit  to  their  bank  account  from  breathe 
or  in  free  calls  to  the  breathe  0845  service. 

N  o  'breathe  freely'  user  will  be  disconnected 
from  the  Internet  or  lose  email  access,  but  will  be 
migrated  by  breathe  from  the  free  IDA  access 
number  to  a  call-charging0845  number. 

breathe  is  providing  new  solutions  to  heavier 
Internet  users  in  A  ugust,  which  will  incur  a 
monthly  fee.  T his  service  will  be  a  separate 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


product  to ' breathe  freely'  end  will  be  made 
available  to  those  users  recently  removed  from 
breathe  freely  as  well  as  new  users  on  breathe. 

RISC-Y  BUSINESS 

I  read  with  interest  David  Fearon's 
column  The  nerd's  revenge  in  PCW 's 
August  2000  issue.  I  notice  that  he 
referred  to  the  M  ac  and  Apple  in  his 
discussion  of  the  problems  of  PCs. 
However,  he  did  not  mention  the  RISC 
OS  computers  pioneered  by  Acorn. 
These  machines  have  always  been  far 
superior  in  operation  and  reliability  to 
any  PC  and  it  is  an  astonishing  feat  of 
marketing  on  the  part  of  Bill  Gates  and 
M  icrosoft  that  millions  of  people  have 
been  conned  into  buying  inferior 
machines  and  systems. 

The  present  generations  of  RISC  OS 
machines  are  faster  and  more  stable,  as 
well  as  longer  lasting,  than  the  PC.  The 
operation  is  much  more  efficient  and 
theyare  superior  in  everyway- yet  only  a 
small  number  of  people  seem  to  use 
them  or  even  know  of  them. 

Whydon'tyou  borrow  oneof  these 
machines  and  try  it  for  yourself? 

KEITH  BAMFORD 

DAVID  FEARON  replies) 

D  on 't  need  to  borrow  one,  Keith.  I  Ve  owned  an 
A  rchimedes since  1990,  and  have  spent  most  of 
my  waking  hours  from  theageoflO  in  front  of  a 
BBC  Micro.  Unfortunately,  there  was  never  any 
chance  of  RISC  0  S  becoming  a  de  facto  standard 
againstthelikesofIBM,  sol  defected  to  PCsin 
1996.  In  any  case  I'd  actually  dispute  the  idea 
that  RISC  OS  is  superior  these  days  -  it  hasn 't 
progressed  significantly  since  v3  was  released  in 
theearly  1990s,  and  it'ssimply never  been  true 
thatArcs/RISC  PCsarefasterthanaPC  ofthe 
same  price.  You  can  buy  a  dual  800 M  Hz  Pill  for 
the  two  grand  or  so  that  RISC  PCscost,  and  the 
latest  generation  of  graphics  cards  completely 
blowanythingthataRISC  PC  can  support  out  of 
the  water. 

I  i/i/as  as  disappointed  as  anyone  when  A  corn 
and  its  RISC  PC  II  project  foundered  in  1998:1 
i/i/as  reviews  editor  of  PC  W  at  the  time  and  had  a 
review  of  a  RISC  PC  II  machine  all  lined  up.  But, 
it's  a  tough  old  world  out  there,  and  in  the  end 
A  corn  just  didn't  have  what  it  took  to  survive. 

LINEONE  QUITS  QUIP 

Asa  LineOne subscriber  I  took 
advantage  of  its  free  phone  call  offer  via 
Quip  and  wasveryhappy-  until  now. 
LineOne  sent  mean  email  to  tell  me  that 
theschemewill  bewithdrawn  because  it 
is  too  popular.  Instead  customers  can 
opt  for  the  more  restrictive  BT  Surftime. 

Surelythisisa  breach  of  faith?  Any 


fool  knows  that  if  you  offer  a  seven-day- 
a-week,  24-hour  service  for  £5.99  a 
month  then,  yes,  people  will  use  it  and, 
yes,  it  is  very  difficult  to  make  money. 
Theconclusion  that  many  might  draw 
then  is  that  the  people  at  LineO  ne  are 
inept  or  more  likely,  have  total  contempt 
for  their  customers.  If  this  is  the  case 
customers  should  vote  with  their  feet. 

TOMSWINNEY 

NIK  RAWLINSON  replies) 

M  any  readers  have  sent  similar  emails  and  all  are 
putting  the  blame  squarely  at  LineO  ne's  door. 
Perhaps,  though,  we  ought  to  look  more  closely  at 
why  the  scheme  failed.  A  fter  some  careful  maths, 
LineO  ne  worked  out  that  the  service  i/i/as  viable 
only  if  users  stayed  logged  on  for  no  more  than 
two  hours  at  a  time.  Sounds  fair  enough  to  me, 
but  a  lot  of  users  didn 't  like  this  and  so  they 
rigged  their  PCs  to  automatically  reconnect 
whenever  the  line  dropped.  T  his  meant  that  just 
1 0  per  cent  of  users  were  accounting  for  over  40 
per  cent  of  online  time.  Asa  result,  of  course,  the 
carefully  constructed  financing  plan  crumbled 
and  B  T  rightly  had  to  pull  the  plug,  although  it  is 
refunding  users'  initial  investment  in  the  scheme 
by  awarding  them  free  voice  calls. 

I 'd  be  the  first  to  criticise  a  company  that  I 
felt  had  genuinelyshort-changed  its  users,  but  in 
this  case,  it  looks  more  like  the  greed  of  the  few 
has  spoilt  it  for  everyone  else. 

SURPRISE  SERVICE 

In  January,  I  bought  a  new  PC  from 
Carrera.  This  has  behaved  well  apart  from 
a  bad  sector  appearing  in  the  middle  of 
theWindows98  software,  which  caused 
an  hour  or  two  of  excitement. 


However,  the  system  crashed  and 
refused  to  complete  the  boot  sequence 
and  I  received  a  message  from 
HIM  EM  .SYS  suggesting  that  there 
was  a  memory  error.  A  few  changes  to 
CONFIG.SYS  (of  unhappymemory)  and 
the  machine  is  going  again.  However,  I 
was  not  happy  with  suspect  RAM ,  so  I 
called  thevendor. 

To  my  great  surprise,  the  call  was 
answered  immediately,  not  byan 
engineer  but  by  a  pleasant  lady  who 
asked  for  a  few  details,  and  said  that  I 
had  never  called  previously  (so  I  knew 
they  had  a  record  of  past  problems  and 
calls).  She  stated  that  the  engineers  were 
verybusyand  would  not  beableto  call 
me  back  for  several  hours.  I  asked  if  it 
was  normal  for  the  company's  engineers 
to  call  back,  and  she  told  me  it  was! 
Carrera  phoned  back  two  hours  later, 
and  is  sending  me  some  software  to 
check  my  RAM . 

I  have  been  in  this  business  for  some 
years,  and  I  know  that  this  is  not  the 
properwayof  doingthings.  You  are 
supposed  to  make  customers  call  a 
standard  (or  premium  rate)  phone  line 
only  available  between  9am  and  5pm, 
and  then  play  music  to  them  for  30-40 
minutes  with  the  occasional  reassuring 
statementthat  mycall  isvaluableto 
them  and  that  thereareonly27  people 
ahead  of  them  in  the  queue.  When  you 
get  through,  someone  takes  half  an  hour 
to  run  a  series  of  checks,  which  you  have 
already  done,  and  then  says:  'Format  the 
hard  diskand  reinstall  Windows.' 

CHARLES  BREWER 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


SCOTT  MONTGOMERY 

replies  > 

It  is  refreshing  to  hear  of  service  like  this  from 
Carrera ,  as  unfortunately  it  is  not  the  norm 
among  manufacturers.  Here  at  PCW  we 
regularly  hear  of  situations  where  computers 
have  failed  and  customers  have  been  put  on 
hold  for  hours ,  or  been  bounced  between 
departments,  just  to  find  that  the  problem  is 
still  unresolved  after  long  periods  of  wasted  time 
and  anxiety 

U  nfortunately  computers  are  not  perfect 
machines  and  do  break  down.  T his  is  a  hazard 
thathasarisen  dueto  the  pace  of  change  in  the 
industry  and  it  has  to  be  accepted  ( although  it 
should  obviously  be  minimised  as  much  as 
possible) .  B  ut  this  does  not  let  the  manufacturers 
off  the  hook.  P  rovision  must  be  made  by 
manufacturers  to  deal  with  these  after-sales 
problems.  The  bottom  line  is:  if  Carrera  can  do  it, 
so  can  everyone  else.  It  is  not  enough  for  the 
companies  to  say  they  will  find  time  for  these  sorts 
of  issues,  they  have  to  make  time. 


SILENCE  IS  GOLDEN 

The  computer  press  has  recently  focused 
on  PC  overclocking  and  its  problems  and 
benefits.  Your  August  2000  issue 
contained  an  article  by  Gordon  Laing 
about  overclocking  -  he  managed  to  get 
his  processor  past  1G  H  z.  There  was  also 
a  letter  from  Alistair  M  ackenzie  about 
turning  a  K6-III  400M  Hz  into  a  500M  Hz, 
and  overclocking  his  graphics  card. 

All  well  and  good,  but  am  I  theonly 
person  who  has  discovered  the  benefits 
of  underclocking? 

The  PC  is  noisy,  mainlybecauseof 
the  huge  fans  necessary  to  cool  the  latest 
chips.  Look  at  the  size  of  the  beast  in 
Gordon  Laing's  article;  it's  bigger  than 
theonel  use  to  cool  down  myGrandma. 
And  Alistair  M  ackenzie  pointed  out  that 
he  too  needed  a  fan  for  his  graphics  card 
after  he  overclocked  it.  Noise  every¬ 
where!  Mysolution  is  to  promote  under¬ 
clocking.  Fair  enough,  it  invalidates  your 
warranty,  but  it's  worth  it  for  the  silence. 


The  evidence?  I  recently  bought 
myself  a  new  PC,  a  lovelyPentium  III 
750M  Hz,  costing  about  a  £1,000.  By 
tinkering  with  the  processor  switches  I 
managed  to  underclock  it  down  to  the 
equivalent  of  a  Pentium  I  500M  Hz.  It 
then  ran  cool  enough  to  allow  me  to 
throw  awaythefan,  and  my  PC  is  now 
almost  silent  (although  it  is  a  tad  slower). 

If  enough  research  went  into  this  area 
we  could  probably  downgrade  the  latest 
processors  into  the  equivalent  of  a  486 
DX4/100  within  a  year  and  the  result 
would  hopefully  run  cool  enough  to  chill 
beer.  The  possibilities  are  endless. 

KARL  DRINKWATER 

IT  DOESN’T  ADD  UP 

I  hope  the  youngsters  pictured  on  pages 
160-161  of  your  September  issue  are  not 
looking  at  the  incorrect  mathematics 
you  printed  under  the  monitor. 

Until  recently,  the  scientific  press 
frequentlyfailed  to  checkthat  numerical 
superscripts  were  printed  correctly, 
presumably  after  converting  text  from 
one  word  processor  to  another  during 
editing,  which  resulted  in  some  awful 
howlers.  M  ost  seem  to  get  it  right  now, 
and  I  trust  PCW 's  lapse  is  just  a  one-off. 

Thank  you  for  an  excellent  magazine. 
Such  minor  blemishes  are  noticed  just 
because  they  are  so  unusual. 

HECTOR  C  PARR 

CLIVE  AKASS  replies  > 

Sorry  about  that.  The  132  and  122  should  of 
course  have  read  1 32  and  122.  As  you  rightly 
point  out,  these  errors  occur  in  translating  from 
one  system  to  another  -  in  our  case  from  PCs  to 
M  acs,  which  are  used  for  production. 

T  his  is  just  one  of  many  problems  stemming 
from  the  fact  that  for  a  long  time  there  was  no 
global  standard  for  representing  text.  T wo-byte 
basic  ASCII,  withits256  numbers,  wassimply 
not  up  to  the  job.  Four-byte  U  nicode,  which 
allows  for  65,536  symbolsand  takes  into 
account  just  about  every  language  in  the  world,  is 
supposed  to  be  the  answer,  but  it  is  by  no  means 
universallyimplemented.  W  hich  is  why  even  the 
simplest  email  can  get  corrupted  in  transmission. 

CLARIFICATION 

The  Belinea  10  30  50  that  appeared  in 
the  17in  monitor  group  test  (September 
2000  page  188)  was  incorrectly  priced  at 
£260  exVAT  in  both  the  review  and  the 
features  table.  We  have  now  been 
advised  the  correct  price  of  this  monitor 
is  £188  exVAT.  As  our  primary  criticism 
was  its  cost,  the  10  30  50  star  ratings 
should  now  be  revised  to  reflect  four 
stars  in  all  categories. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


NEW  PRODUCTS  >  > 


HARDWARE  ^ 

72  Panrix Magnum  MAX  1G 

73  Mesh  Matrix  1.1  GT  Pro 

74  Systemax  D700  RV  Pro 

78  H  i-Grade  Ultis  PV3  700A 

79  SonyVaio  PCG-Z600NE 
82  Sony  Vaio  PCG-SR1K 
84  Samsung  IZZI-Pro  Swivel 

86  Dell  Inspiron  5000e 

87  IBM  I  series Thinkpad 

PERIPHERALS 

92  Hercules  3D  Prophet  II  MX 

93  Sony  Cyber-shot  DSC-F505V 
96  Creative  WebCam  Go  Plus 

Samsung  SyncM  aster  TFT 
98  Panasonic  LF-D201  DVD-RAM 
101  Polaroid  and 

NEC  M ultiSync  projectors 
103  M  SI  K7T  Pro  motherboard 
106  Xerox  DocuPrint  M  750 
NEC  22in  Multisync FP1370 
108  Seagate  Cheetah  X15  Enterprise 
110  Kyocera  laser  printer 

SOFTWARE 

118  Macromedia  Flash  5 
120  M  icrosoft  Visio  2000 

123  M  icrosoft  Autoroute  GB  2001 

124  Steinberg  Cubase  VST  5.0  P 

129  Web  Traffic  Maximizer  T 

1  ■ 

BUSINESS 

130  Ricoh  Aficio  AP2100 

131  Dell  PowerApp.web  100 


'ersonal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


'sail  this 
need  for  speed? 


hile  Intel  and 
AM  D  continueto 
tryand  outdo 
each  other  on  the 
desktop  processor 
front,  the  real  battle  has  shifted  from 
desktop  to  mobile  processors.  Two  main 
forces  are  currently  at  work  in  this  arena. 

First,  and  most  obvious,  there's  the 
rush  to  1GHz.  This  month,  wetakea 
lookat  Dell's  new  Inspiron  5000ewith  a 
mobilePentium  III  clocked  at  750M  Hz, 
and  Intel  has  plans  to  keep  on  increasing 
the  clock  speed  in  the  future.  At  the 
moment,  AM  D  is  stuck  at  550M  H  z  with 
its  mobile  K6-2+,  but  later  this  year  we 
will  seemobileAthlonsand  Durons. 
There's  little  chance  that  the  company 


compromising  performance.  We've  yet 
to  see  any  products  based  on  this  chip, 
though,  so  for  now  it  is  all  pie  in  the  sky. 

H  owever,  the  company  has  clearly 
had  an  effect  on  the  mobile-processor 
market,  as  both  Intel  and  AM  D  have 
been  talking  more  about  their  own 
power-saving  functions.  Intel  has 
SpeedStep,  a  technology  that  runs  the 
processor  at  a  lower  voltage  (and  speed), 
when  the  notebook  is  on  battery  power. 

It  has  also  recently  announced  new  low- 
power  Pentium  III  600M  Hz  and  Celeron 
500M  Hzchipsthat,  it  claims,  consume 
around  lw  in  'normal  usage'.  Again, 
there  are  no  products  as  yet. 

AM  D,  not  to  be  left  behind,  has  its 
own  PowerN  ow  technology.  This  saves 


A  Giga Hertz  race  in  the  mobile 
arena  has  the  potential  to  be 
even  more  of  a  farce 


ratings 

★★★★★ 

EXCELLENT 

★★★★ 

VERY  GOOD 

★★★ 

AVERAGE 

★★ 

BELOW  AVERAGE 

★ 

POOR 

will  want  to  beseen  to  befalling  behind 
Intel,  and  it's  likely  that,  towardstheend 
of  this  year  and  the  start  of  the  next,  we 
will  see  yet  another  dash  to  lGHzfrom 
both  companies.  M  anypeople 
complained  that  the  race  in  the  desktop 
processor  arena  was  bad  for  the  industry 
and  consumers,  but  a  GigaHertz  race  in 
the  mobile  arena  has  the  potential  to  be 
even  more  of  a  farce.  There  are  few 
peoplethat  actually  need  1GHz 
processors  inside  their  systems  at  home, 
but  it  becomes  even  more  ludicrous 
when  placed  inside  a  notebook.  With  the 
possible  exception  of  digital  video  editing 
(and  adesktop  machineis  more  suitable 
for  this  task  anyway),  I  have  a  hard  time 
thinking  of  a  mobileapplication  that 
requires  this  much  power. 

The  second  trend  is  towards 
p  ro  cesso  rs  t  h  a  t  co  n  su  m  e  I  ess  p  o  wer, 
with  the  aim  of  improving  battery  life. 

0  ne  company  that  has  grabbed  the 
headlines  many  times  over  the  past 
few  months  isTransmeta.  It  claims 
its  low-power  Crusoe  processor  runs 
cooler  than  others  and  allows  battery  life 
to  be  extended  to  a  full  day,  without 


power  by  changing  the  processor  speed 
on  thefly,  depending  on  theoperation 
being  performed.  Incidentally,  we'll  havea 
full  review  of  this  technology  next  month. 

Intel  and  AM  D  saytheycan  deliver 
extremely  fast  mobile  processors  that  use 
very  little  power  and,  in  the  long  term, 
they  will  doubtless  turn  out  to  be  correct. 
But,  in  the  short  term,  myguessisthat 
faster  processors  are  not  compatible 
with  very  low  power  consumption.  This 
is  why  I  would  prefer  to  see  more  low- 
power  processors  inside  notebooks  than 
headline-grabbing  speed  increases. 

But  this  is  precisely  the  problem. 
Think  of  two  different  adverts.  One 
screams  '1GHz  mobile  processor! '  and 
the  other  This  500M  H  z  processor  uses 
onlylw  in  normal  usage!' Which  oneis 
more  instantly  appealing,  and  which 
would  you  buy? 

M  obile-processor  power  consump¬ 
tion  will  becomea  hot  topic  over  the 
coming  months.  But,  when  push  comes 
to  shove,  the  top  two  vendors  will  fall 
backon  increasing  the  headline¬ 
grabbing  clock  speed,  chaining  users  to 
their  wall  sockets  for  a  while  to  come. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


HARDWARE  >  > 


Panrix  Magnum  MAX  1G 

-  If  you're  after  speed,  good  graphics  and  expandability,  this  is  the  machine-  but  it  comes  at  a  price 


With  processors  clocked  at 
1.13GHz  now  a  reality,  you 
could  be  forgiven  for 
thinking  we'd  seen  everything  a  not-so- 
humblelGHzchip  could  muster  by  now. 
You'd  be  wrong.  Although  we've  put 
several  1,000M  Hz  systems  through  their 
paces  in  the  PC  W  labs,  this  PC  from 
Panrix  is  the  fastest  1G  H  z  machine  we've 
seen  so  far  and  it  managed  to  clock  up  a 
very  impressive  score  of  196  in  our 
SYSmark2000  benchtest. 

This  is  partlydueto  AM  D's  new 
lGHzAthlon.The 
chip,  manufactured 
using  0.18micron 
process  technology, 
comes  complete  with 
256KB  of  on-die 
Level  2  cache.  We 
first  took  a  look  at 
this  processor  in  a 
M  esh  system  last 
month,  but  the  extra 
time  afforded  to 
Panrixhas enabled  it 
to  source  a  better 
motherboard,  an 
Asus  A7V-100, 
that  features  a 
Promise  PCI- 
UltraDM  A100 
controller  on  board.  This  allows  it  to 
support  the  new  generation  of 
U ItraDM  A100  hard  drives.  It  also  frees 
up  the  motherboard's  southbridge  to 
deal  with  other  matters,  giving  the 
system  a  further  performance  boost.  We 
were  pleased  to  see  this  mounted  in  a 
roomy,  well-ventilated  tower  case,  which 
will  make  it  easy  to  add  to  the  system  in 
future  months  and  years. 

Inside  the  case  is  a  hefty  256M  B  of 
PC133  SDRAM .  This  comes  on  a  single 
DIM  M  that  leaves  a  further  two  slots  free 
to  add  extra  memory  modules.  There's 
also  a  60GB  UltraDM  A100  IBM 
Deskstar  hard  drive,  mounted  sideways 
in  a  3.5in  bay,  which  should  be  more 
than  enough  to  store  all  the  latest 
applications  and  games  with  plenty  of 
room  to  spare.  The  drive  has  a  spindle 
speed  of  7,200rpm,  so  accessing  your 
data  should  be  extremely  quick  despite 
its  cavernous  capacity.  There  are  two  free 
3.5in  drive baysand  a  5.25in  bayshould 
you  want  to  add  extra  drives. 

When  it  comes  to  3D  performance, 
this  machine  leaves  others  standing. 
There's  a  Hercules  3D  Prophet  II  GTS 


card  on  duty  and  this  comes  complete 
with  64M  B  of  DDR  memory.  This  helped 
the  system  turn  in  a  staggering  score  of 
7,235  in  3DM  ark 2000  when  running  in 
16bit  colour  at  a  resolution  of  1,024  x 
768.  O ur Q uake III  timedemo  was 
completed  with  an  average  per  second 
frame  rate  of  115.4,  meaning  that,  if 
you're  after  the  ultimate  PC  to  play 
games  on,  you've  found  it.  This  PC  could 
also  be  an  option  for  graphic  artists  as, 
when  we  ran  our 
test- rendering 


scene  using  3D  Studio  M  ax,  the  unit  took 
22  minutes  54  seconds  to  render, 
marginally  beating  the  M  esh  M  atrixGT 
Ultra  we  looked  at  in  September,  which 
took  23  minutes  nine  seconds. 

As  we'd  expect  from  a  system 
costing  £2,149  ex  VAT,  Panrix's  PC 
comes  complete  with  both  DVD  and 
CD-RW  drives.  The  DVD  is  a  12-speed 
model  from  Toshiba  and  theCD-RW 
is  a  9110i  model  from  HP  capableof 
eight-speed  write,  four-speed  rewrite  and 
32-speed  read.  We  might  have  preferred 
to  see  a  faster  drive  at  this  price,  but  the 
H  P  is  still  a  good  performer  so  it's  no 
major  criticism.  A  56K  PCI  modem  is 
also  present. 

The  monitor  is  the  excellent  19in 
Diamond  Pro  91  from  M  itsubishi.  It  uses 
a  Diamondtron  NF  screen  to  provide  a 
good  image  with  a  maximum  resolution 
of  1,600  x  1,200  at  75H z.  A  Creative 
Sound  Blaster  Live  1024  card  takes  care 
of  sound  and  this  is  backed  byan  equally 
impressive  speaker  system  from 
Cambridge  SoundWorks.  A  KeyTronic 


keyboard  and  optical  IntelliM  ouse 
complete  the  system,  plus  three  year's 
warranty  (one  year  on-site  and  two  years 
return  to  base)  and  a  copy  of  M  icrosoft 
Works  2000. 

There's  plenty  of  room  for  both 
internal  and  external  expansion  with  this 
machine.  Fora  start,  there's  a  healthy 
complement  of  USB  ports,  five  in  total, 
as  well  as  two  serial  and  PS/2  ports  and  a 
parallel  port.  Although  it  would  have 
been  useful  to  see  a  FireWire  connector 
for  greater  future  proofing,  again,  it's  a 
minor  quibble.  Elsewhere,  there  are 
three  vacant  PCI  slots  and 
it's  also  worth  pointing 
out  that  there's  an  AM  R 
slotforoneofthe 
new  generation  of 
comms  cards. 

ThisPanrixPC  is 
the  fastest  1G  Hz 
system  we've  ever 
seen.  The 

motherboard  seems 
to  have  had  a  large 
impact  on  thechip's 
performance.  It  is  also 
highly  expandable.  The 
top-notch  graphics  card 
is  also  well  worth  shouting  about  and 
should  future-proof  your  system  for 
sometimeto  come. 

RICHARD  MCPARTLAND 

DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £2,525.08  (£2,149  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Panrix0113  244 4958 

www.panrix.com 

PROS  Fastest  lGHzPC  yet;  excellent  3D 
performance;  excellent  monitor  and  lots 
of  memory 

CONS  M  ore  expensive  than  the  faster  M  esh 
OVERALL  Unfortunately  this  level 
of  processing  power  doesn't  come 
cheap,  but  if  your  credit  card  can  take  the 
strain  this  Panrixsystem  comes  highly 
recommended 


PERFORMANCE  RESULTS 

0  100  200  300 


SYSmark  2000 


2,000  3,000  4,000  5,000  6,000  7,000  8,000 


3DMark  2000 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Mesh  Matrix  1.1  GT  Pro 

The  fastest  system  on  the  planet  won't  cost  you  the  earth,  although  there's  nothing  cheap  about  it 


The  march  to  faster  processors 
continues  this  month  with 
AM  D'slaunch  ofthel.lGHz 
Athlon.  Mesh  has  come  up  trumps 
again,  giving  us  our  first  look  at  a  PC 
based  on  this  new  chip. 

The  BIOS  reported  the  chip  as 
running  at  1,066M  Hz  but,  using  a 
couple  of  processor  utilities  we 
determined  that  it  was 
actually  running  just  over 
1.1GHz.  Bythetimeyou 
read  this,  M  esh  and  Asus  will 
have  come  up  with  a  stable 
BIOS  update  to  ensure  that 
the  processor  is  reported 
correctly. 

This  system  is 
virtually  identical  inside 
to  Panri/s  machine 
reviewed  on  the 


GeForce2  GTS  graphics  card  is  reviewed 
fullyin  ourgroup  test  on  page203. 

N  eedless  to  say,  it  is  a  very  fast  performer 
and  has  both  DVI  and  S-Video  out  ports 
in  addition  to  thestandard  D-SUB,  so  it 
will  beableto  connect  to  anything. 

The  extra  processing  power  has  only 


opposite  page, 
but  the  faster 
processor  inside  it 
gives  M  esh  the 
award  for  the 
fastest  machine  we 
have  ever  seen, 
although 
judging  by 
the  1.13GHz 
demonstration 

system  we've  seen  from  Intel  (see 
p25)  it  won't  keep  the  award  for  long. 
Therearetwo  keys  to  its  speed:  first,  the 
new  Socket  A  Athlon  inside  has  256KB  of 
on-die  Level  2  cache,  running  at  the  same 
speed  as  the  processor.  This  removes  a 
speed  bottleneck  that  was  present  on 
theold  generation  of  Athlons.  Second, 
the  Asus  A7V  is  a  real  gem  of  a  board. 

Its  secret  is  the  onboard  Promise 
UltraDM  A100  controller.  Its  inclusion 
takes  a  load  off  thesouthbridgeand 
helps  increase  the  system's  overall  speed. 

There's  256MB  of  PC133  SDRAM  on 
one  stick,  leaving  two  further  slots  free. 
That  meansyou  could  put  in  1.5GB  of 
RAM,  providing  you  remove  the  existing 
DIMM  and  use  512M  B  sticks,  of  course. 
The 60GB  hard  drive isfrom  IBM  -  a 
Deskstar  75GXP-  with  a  spindle  speed  of 
7,200rpm.  It  uses  glass  media,  and  we 
reviewed  the  75GB  version  in  our 
September  issue.  It  is  incrediblyfast  and 
provides  thefinal  touch  to  give  this 
system  a  huge  204  in  SYSmark2000. 

Producing  the  equally  impressive 
3DM  ark  score  is  a  64M  B  Hercules  3D 
Prophet  II.  This  Editor's  Choice-winning 


given  this  machine  a  marginal  3D 
performance  boost.  It  beats  the  Panrix 
slightlyon  3DM  ark  2000,  scoring  7,261. 
Quakelll'stimedemo  onewasrun  with 
a  n  a  vera  ge  f  ra  m  e  ra  t  e  o  f  1 1 5 . 2  f  p  s, 
slightly  below  that  of  the  Panrix,  but 
within  a  certain  margin  of  error.  Our  test 
render  using  3D  Studio  was  completed  in 
21  minutes  11  seconds:  fast,  but  it  still 
cannot  beat  a  dual  system  -  Panrix's  dual 
Pentium  Ills  running  at  933M  Hz 
completed  thesametaskin  14  minutes. 

An  OEM  Creative  SoundBlaster  1024 
sits  in  a  PCI  slot,  although  it  is  without  a 
CD  SPDIF  port.  A  V.90  PCI  modem  is 
also  present,  leaving  three  PCI  and  one 
AMR  slots  free.  An  Acer  CD-RW  is 
provided  and  this,  like  that  on  the  Panrix, 
is  an  eight-speed  write,  four-speed  rewrite 
and  32-speed  read  model.  A  Pioneer 
DVD-ROM  (a  DVD-115)  sits  below  this, 
so  you  can  play  films  and  copy  on  thefly. 

USB  ports  feature  heavily  on  this 
product.  In  addition  to  thestandard  two 
at  the  rear  of  the  case,  there  are  another 
three  mounted  on  a  backing  plate.  Not 


o  n  ly  that,  b  ut  there  a  re  a  f  u  rther  fo  u  r 
USB  ports  as  part  of  the  powered  hub  on 
theTaxan  975TC099  monitor,  making  a 
grand  total  of  eight  possible  USB  ports. 

The  19in  Taxan  is  a  good  shadow- 
mask  model.  To  upgradeto  theaperture- 
grille  985,  M  esh  will  charge  you  around 
£80.  Four 
|  satellites  and  a 
subwoofer  make 
up  Labtec'sLCS- 
2514  speakers. 

The  system 
ships  with  Works 
Suite  2000  as 
standard.  This 
includesWorks 
2000  and  Word 
2000,  in  contrast 
to  the  Panrix 
machineopposite 
that  only  ships  with 
Works  2000. 

Build  qualityis 
superb.  There  are 
single  5.25in  and 
3.5in  bays  free,  and 
the  case  has  been  designed 
so  that  all  major  components 
can  be  accessed  with  the 
minimum  of  fuss.  An  extra  fan  has 
been  inserted  at  the  base  of  the  case  to 
help  keep  everything  cool. 

This  is  a  fantastic  system  that  goes  like 
the  clappers  and  it's  going  for  a  song.  If 
you  are  in  the  market  for  the  fastest 
system  on  the  planet,  this  is  theoneto  buy 
JASON  JENKINS 

DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £2,348.83  (£1,999  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Mesh 020 8208 4706 
www.meshcomputers.co.uk 
PROS  Fastest  system  ever,  well  built,  good 
expansion  potential 

CONS  No  CD  SPDIF  portonthesound  card 
OVERALL  If  you  have  this  amount  of  money 
free  to  spend  on  a  new  PC,  looktowards  M  esh 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


HARDWARE  > 


HARDWARE  >  > 


Systemax  D 700  RV  Pro 

A  fast  system  that  is  more  expandable  than  the  first  D  uron  systems 


After  providing  us  with  our  first 
look  at  a  Duron  processor  in 
the  August  issue,  Systemax  has 
come  up  with  another  machine  based  on 
the  same  processor  family,  but  this  one  is 
clocked  at  700M  Hz. 

Oneofthecomplaintswehad  the 
last  we  time 
reviewed  a 
Duron  was  the 
lack  of  socket  A 
motherboards 
available.  The 
situation  is  now  a 
lot  better  and 
Systemax  has 
opted  fora  Biostar 
M7VKB.Thisisa 
full-size  ATX  board 
that  affords  plenty 
of  room  for 
expansion.  As 
with  all  current 
socket  A 
boards,  it 
is  based 
on  VIA's 
KT133 

chipset  with  support  for  AGP 
4xand  U  ItraDM  A66.  After  all  the  cards 
are  taken  into  account,  therearetwo  PCI 
slots  free,  plus  one  shared  and  one  AM  R. 
The  latter  is  positioned  in  the  more 
traditional  position  above theAGP 
connector,  rather  than  at  the  base  of  the 
board.  In  terms  of  free  bays,  single  3.5in 
and  5.25in  ones  remain. 

Backing  up  the 700M  HzDuron  is 
128M  B  of  PC133  SDRAM ,  all  contained 
on  one  stick.  This  leaves  two  slots  free  for 
expansion.  Attached  to  oneof  thetwo 
EIDE  channels  is  a  30GB  M  axtor  hard 
drive.  30GB  seems  to  havebecomea 
fairly  standard  size,  and  most  people  will 
have  trouble  filling  this  space. 

Systemaxputsin  thesametwo 
optical  drives  into  nearly  all  the  review 
machines  we  see.  It  is  an  excellent 
combination:  in  one5.25in  baythereis 
the  Ricoh  M  P9060,  a  6  x4  x24  CD-RW 
and  a  four-speed  DVD-RO  M  all  in  one 
unit.  In  the  bay  directly  below  there  is  a 
52-speed  Creative  CD-RO  M ,  giving  you 
the  opportunity  to  copydiscson  thefly 
and  still  watch  DVDs.  The  52-speed 
was  flimsier  than  usual,  but  this  is  still  a 
fair  drive. 

You  get  a  decent  sound  card  for  your 
money,  an  OEM  version  of  Creative's 
SoundBlaster  Live!  1024,  although  once 


again  this  does  not  have  a  CD-SPDIF 
connector,  so  if  you  feel  you  need  this, 
beware  -  it's  not  there.  Sound  comes  out 
of  a  pair  of  Creative's  SBS52  speakers. 

0  ne  piece  of  new  technology  is  the 


graphics  card.  Systemax  has  opted  for 
nVidia's  new  graphics  chip,  theGeForce2 
MX.  For  the  differences  between  this  and 
theGeForce2  GTS  cards  featured  in 
other  review  systems  and  this  month's 
graphics  card  group  test,  turn  to  our 
review  of  the  Hercules  card  on  page  92. 
The  MX  card  supplied  in  our  system 
was  a  reference  board  directly  from 
nVidia,  and  Systemax  had  yet  to  decide 
on  a  supplier  as  we  went  to  press,  so  it 
will  be  worth  checking  this  before 
ordering  the  system.  A  different  graphics 
card  will  have  some  impact  on  3D 
performance,  but  it  will  be  very  limited. 

One  thing  that  our  performance  tests 
did  show  up  was  that  3D  acceleration 
is  simply  faster  with  a  Duron  inside. 
Notonlydid  this  machine  beat  Hi- 
Grade's Celeron  in  SYSmark2000,  but 
also  in  3DM  ark 2000  and  Quakelll, 
scoring  68.6  frames  per  second  in  the 
latter  test. 

The  monitor  is  the  excellent  CTX 
PR705F  that  we've  written  about  so 
many  times  before  it  scarcely  needs 
further  commendation.  Needless  to  say, 
its  17in  Trinitron  tube  is  very  good  and  is 
great  to  look  at. 


In  terms  of  software,  you  get  a 
copy  of  Lotus  SmartSuite  M  illennium, 
Nero  Burning  ROM  5  to  keep  the  CD- 
RW  happy,  Power  DVD,  a  games  pack 
and  a  M  icrosoft  Sidewinder  game  pad 
to  play  them  with.  The  warranty 
period  is  one-year  back  to  base,  but 
for  this  money  we  would  preferon- 
site  cover. 

The  price  of  this  system  takes  it 
out  of  the  value  range  normally 
occupied  byCeleron  and  Duron 
machines.  For  the  money,  you  might 
expect  a  proper  Athlon  rather  than 
a  Duron,  but  to  an  extent,  what 
you  lose  in  performance,  you  gain 
in  extras.  The 
provision 
of  a 
decent 
sound 
card, 
graphics 
card  and 
monitor, 
together  with 
a  fair  software 

package,  makes  this  system  a  good 
purchase,  and  it  goes  faster  than  a 
Celeron  equivalent  as  well.  Having 
said  that,  it  is  still  a  little  pricey,  and  the 
company's  D650  RV  Pro  reviewed  in 
August  might  be  a  better  bet  -  for  the 
sake  of  50M  Hz  and  a  sound  card,  you 
save  £100. 

JASON  JENKINS 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £1,173.83  (£999  exVAT) 

CONTACT  SimplyComputers 08707  297366 
www.simply.co.uk 
PROS  Good  sound  card,  monitorand 
graphics  card;  can  copyCDson  thefly 
CONS  A  littlepricey,  no  on  site  warranty 
OVERALL  A  good  all-round  system  that  is 
also  fast.  Worth  a  look,  but  you  could 
consider  downgrading  the  processor  to 
save  money 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Hi-Grade  Ultis  PV3  700A 


The  first  700M  Hz  Celeron  system  we've  seen  is  well  built,  but  the  chip  has  had  its  day 


SYSmark  2000 


This  is  the  first  time  we've  seen  a 
700M  HzCeleron  insidea 
system,  and  it  puts  this  machine 
at  the  top  end  of  Intel's  budget  range. 

It's  still  runningon  a  66M  Hzbus, 
though,  which  makes  sense  from  Intel's 
point  of  view,  sinceupping  it  to  100M  Hz 
or  above  means 
that  this  less 
expensive  range 
of  chips  might 
start  to  make  the 
Pills  look  less 
attractive  by 
comparison. 

The  processor  is 
built  into  an  Asus 
815E  motherboard, 
theCUSL2,  which 
supports  any  of  the 
current  crop  of 
Celeron 
and  Pill 
processors, 
so  there's 
scope  for 
upgrading 
this  in  the 
future,  should 
you  find  it 
doesn't  quite  keep  - 

up  with  your 

software  requirements.  The  spec  is  fairly 
generous  so  that  shouldn't  befor  some 
timeyet.  Although  set  to  66M  Hzin  this 
system  the  FSB  can  be  clocked  up  to 
133M  Hzand  in  theJumperFreemodeall 
settings  can  be  tweaked  on  screen 
through  the  BIOS.  For  the  same  reason 
it's  likely  to  appeal  to  overclocking  fans. 

The  Solano  motherboard,  of  course, 
comes  with  onboard  graphics,  but 
Hi-Grade  has  turned  a  blind  eye  to  this 
and  slipped  a  H ercules  3D  Prophet  II 
M  X  (see  p92)  into  the  AGP  slot.  This  is 
undoubtedly  a  good  move,  since  it  will 
enhance  the  performance,  but  it  wasn't 
enough  to  push  it  ahead  ofSystemax's 
Duron  (p74),  which  was  13  points  in 
front  with  SYSmark  2000,  almost  500 
3DM  arks  ahead  butonlyonemorefpsin 
the Q uake III  test.  TheDuron  insidethe 
Systemax machine,  with  its 200M  Hz 
FSB,  clearly  made  a  difference. 

We  were  impressed  byHi-Grade's 
choiceof  monitor,  theCTXPR705F, 
which  is  effectively  the  711F,  our  Best 
Buys  pick,  but  without  theUSB  hub.  The 
tube  is  a  17in  FD  Trinitron  with  a  16in 
viewable  area  and  an  excellent  image. 


Expansion-wise,  there's  plenty  of 
space,  with  four  PCI  slots  and  two 
shared  PCI/CNR  (Communications and 
Network  Riser)  card  clots,  all  of  which 
are  free  except  for  one  PCI  slot  that 
houses  an  internal  Diamond  modem. 
This  will  not  hog  a  phonesocket, 
because  Hi-Grade  has  included  a  pass¬ 
through  socket  doubler  that  also 


acts  as  an  RJ-45 
to  British  socket  converter. 
There  are  two  free  bays  with  external 
access,  one  of  each  size,  and  a  single 
internal  3.5in  space  for  a  second  hard 
drive  should  you  run  out  of  spaceon  the 
primarydevice. 

Around  theback  of  thecase  you'll 
find  two  PS/2  sockets  for  the  mouse  and 
keyboard,  a  couple  of  USB  ports  and  one 
port  each  for  serial,  parallel  and  VGA 
devices.  In  the  boxthere's  a  second  nine- 
pin  serial  port  mounted  onto  a  blanking 
plate,  although  with  so  manydevices 
making  the  switch  to  USB  it'sunlikely 
you'll  need  to  use  it. 

The  inside  is  fastidiously  tidy  with  all 
cables  and  power  leads  neatly  clipped  out 
oftheway,  giving  you  easy  access  to  the 
processor  and  two  free  memory  slots. 
There's  128M  B  of  SDRAM  installed  in 
theform  of  a  single  module.  For  storage, 

H  i-Grade  has  opted  for  a  Fujitsu  hard 
drive  with  a  capacity  of  20GB.  Upon 
closer  inspection,  virtual  memory  was  set 
to  175M  B  rather  than  leaving  it  up  to 
Windows  to  determine.  Hi-Grade 


assured  us  this  was  so  the  system  could 
achieve  optimum  performance  and  we 
have  no  reason  to  doubt  this,  but  it's 
worth  remembering  that  M  icrosoft's 
recommended  course  of  action  is  to  leave 
it  up  to  Windows 

unless  you  have  a  specific  reason  for 
changing  it. 

Lefties  will  be  happy 
with  the  symmetrical 
mouse  that  is  comfortable 
to  use  and  is  biased 
towards  neither  hand. 

The  software  bundle  is 
generous,  too.  Lotus 
SmartSuiteM  illennium 
will  meet  your  business 
needs  while  the  internal 
Teac  CD-RW  drive,  which 
is  partnered  bya  12-speed 
EPO  DVD  drive,  will  be 
kept  busy  by  Nero  Burning 
ROM  5.There'salsoacopyof 
CyberLink  PowerDVD  for  movie 
playback.  Sound-wise,  the  U  Itis  uses  the 
motherboard's  onboard  AC97 
codec,  pushing  its  output  to  a 
pair  of  desktop  speakers. 

This  is  a  well  put  together 
machine  with  an  excellent  monitor, 
and  so  far  the815E  chipset  looks  to 
be  a  solid  platform,  but  we  can't  help 
feeling  it  is  a  little  overpriced  fora  budget 
system.  This  isn't  H  i-Grade's fault, 
however  if  you're  going  to  spend  this 
amount  of  moneyyou  can  get  a  faster 
machine. 

NIK  RAWLINSON 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £1,115.08  (£949  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Hi-Grade 0800 0740 402 

www.higrade.com 

PROS  Well  built,  stable  platform,  expansion 
potential 

CONS  A  little  too  expensive 
OVERALL  A  great  system  if  you  are 
committed  to  having  'Intel  inside' 


3D  Mark  2000 


PERFORMANCE  RESULTS  A 

0  100  200  300 


>2]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Sony  Vaio  PCG-Z600NE 

W  hile  retaining  the  best  features  of  the  Z600RE,  Sony's  latest  Vaio  offering  moves  things  up  a  gear 


Thefirst  incarnation  of  theSony 
Z600  notebook  held  pride  of 
placein  ourBestBuyssection  - 
until  now.  TheZ600RE  was  a  great 
product  that  sported  an  impressive 
hardware  specification  along  with  a 
svelte  and  stylish  chassis  design.  In 
fact,  it  was  hard  to  imagine  that  Sony 
could  have  done  anything  to  make  the 
Z600RE  a  better  machine.  That  said, 
Sony  has  never  been  a  company  to  sit  on 
its  laurels  and  the  newly  released 
Z600N  E  has  taken  everything  that  was 
good  about  the  original  and  madeitthat 
little  bit  better. 

W  hat  makes  the  Z600N  E  a  better 
machinethan  theSRIK  (see review  on 
page  82)  isthat  it  takes  the  winning 
formula  of  theoriginal  Z600  and 
builds  on  it,  rather  than  completely 
changingthedesign.Thisapproach  has 
resulted  in  a  beautifullydesigned  unit 
that  will  makeyou  the  envy  of  all  who 
see  it. 

To  be  honest  there's  only  one  major 
enhancement  over  the  original  Z600  and 
that's  the  processor  speed.  TheZ600RE 
was  built  around  a  500M  Hz  Pentium 
processor,  whereas  the  Z600NE  sports 
a  650M  Hz  Pentium  III.  That  said 
there's  more  to  consider  than  just 
an  extra  150MHz.  The  500MHz 
chip  wasn't  a  SpeedStep  CPU, 
but  the  newer  650M  Hz 
processor  is.  This  means 
that  the  Z600N  E  will 
drop  the  speed  and  voltage 
oftheCPU  when  thenotebookis 
running  on  battery  power.  The  result  of 
this  will  be  extended  battery  life  with  only 
a  marginal  drop  in  performance. 

Unlike  a  fully  featured  notebook 
that's  carted  from  one  power  socket  to 
another,  an  ultra-portable  notebook  like 
this  is  likely  to  spend  a  great  deal  of  its 
life  being  used  on  the  move  so  the 
increased  battery  life  will  be  a  real  bonus. 

Supporting  the  new  CPU  is  128M  B 
of  RAM  and  a  12GB  hard  disk,  which 
should  be  more  than  enough  to  run 
anyapplication  you're  likely  to  useon 
a  notebook. 

W  hat  has  set  Sony  notebooks  apart 
from  the  competition  in  the  past  is  their 
connectivityand  theZ600NE  isverywell 
specified  in  this  area.  On  the  right  of  the 
chassis  you'll  find  an  integrated  56K 
modem  and  a  10/100  BaseT  network 
interface,  so  you'll  be  able  to  connect  to 
the  Internet  whether  you're  at  home  or  in 


the  office.  Also  on  the  right  is  a  full-size 
USB  connector  and  an  IrDA  port.  On  the 
left-hand  side  is  a  PC  Card  slot,  a  mini 
USB  port,  audio  sockets  and  a  FireWire 
connector.  There's  also  a  port  with 
which  to  connect  thesupplied  port 
replicator  which  itself  sports  parallel, 
serial,  VGA,  USB  and  FireWire  ports.  All 
in  all  that's  some  pretty  impressive 
connectivityfrom  a 


notebook  that  only 

weighs  1.7kg  and  measures  in  at  29.3  x 
275  x226  mm  (h  xwxd). 

Located  just  above  the  PC  Card  slot 
is  a  M  emory  Stick  slot  that  will  accept 
Sony's  proprietary  M  emory  Stick  solid- 
state  media.  Oncea  M  emory  Stick  is 
inserted,  the  notebook  treats  it  as  a 
hard  disk  and  files  can  be  dragged  and 
dropped  to  it  and  retrieved  in  the  same 
manner.  This  is  great  for  transferring 
pictures  from  a  Sonydigital  camera,  but, 
unfortunately,  you  can't  drop  songs 
straight  onto  a  MemoryStickforusein 
an  MS  Walkman. 

Like  the  SR1K  the  Z600N  E  sports  a 
jog  dial.  This  really  is  a  great  addition  to 
a  notebook  and  allows  you  to  launch 
applications  by  scrolling  through  thejog 
dial  list  and  then  pressing  the  dial 
inwards.  By  linking  your  main 
applications  to  thejog  dial  it  saves  you 


having  to  navigate  the  Start  menu  orfill 
your  desktop  up  with  shortcuts. 

The  screen  is  a  12.1inTFT  affair  with 
a  clear  and  bright  image,  the  lighting  is 
even  and  thecolours  rich  and  vivid.  With 
a  resolution  of  1,024x768  it  will  be 
more  readable  for  some  users  than  the 
10.4in  screen  on  the  SR1K  that  sports 
the  same  resolution.  The  keyboard  is 
equally  impressive  with  each  key 
exhibiting  a  decent  amount  of  travel 
and  solid  feedback. 

Even  with  the  shallow  chassis  the 
keyboard  is  a  joy  to  use  and  the 
small  dimensions  of  the  case  have 
not  stopped  Sonyfrom  including 
large  Return  and  Backspace  keys. 
Thetouchpad  is  responsive  and 
easyto  manipulate,  whilethe 
slightly  recessed  design  negates 
the  chance  of  any  inadvertent 
cursor  movements  when  hitting 
the  space  bar. 

Unlike  theSRIK,  theZ600NE 
runsWindows98SE,  although 
theZ600NEK  issupplied  with 
Windows  2000.  Performance  is 
good  with  the Z600N  E  turning  in 
a  SYSmark  2000  score  of  124.  This 
is  a  couple  of  points  higher  than  last 
month's  H  i-Gradeslimline  notebook. 
Also  in  the  boxyou'll  find  a  16- 
speed  CD-ROM  drive  with  PC  Card 
interface  and  a  USB  floppy  drive.  The 
latter  was  conspicuous  by  its  absence  in 
theSRIK  box 

Ultimately,  Sony  has  updated  the 
Z600  range  with  faster  and  more 
advanced  processing  power,  not  much 
else  has  changed,  but  when  the  product 
was  so  good  in  thefirst  place  it  doesn't 
have  to. 

RIYAD  EMERAN 

DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £2,399  (£2,042  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Sony 08705 424  424 

www.sony.co.uk 

PROS  Slim,  attractive  and  very  well  featured 
CONS  A  little  on  the  pricey  side 
OVERALL  Quite  simply  the  best  ultra¬ 
portable  notebook  on  the  market 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


Sony  Vaio  PCG-SR1K 

Despite  improving  on  the  spec  of  the  505sf  the  ultra-portable  SR1K  fails  to  score  points  on  looks 


TheSonyVaio  505G  wasthefirst 
truly  ultra-portable  notebook 
computer  and  it  sparked  off 
unbridled  desire  in  all  who  saw  it.  The 
505G  went  through  many  updates  with 
newer,  faster  processors  and  larger  hard 
disk  and  RAM  complements,  but  as  with 
all  good  things,  the  505's  days  had  to 
cometo  an  end.  In  its  place,  Sony  has 
come  up  with  the  Vaio  PCG-SR1K. 

The  problem  with  the  SR1K  is  that 
it's  just  not  as  pretty  as  the  505  was.  We 
know  that  this  shouldn't  be  a  major 
consideration  when  purchasing  IT 
equipment,  but  when  you're  buying  an 
ultra-portable  notebook  computer,  how 
it  looks  is  usually  paramount.  Whereas 
the  505  series  of  notebooks  looked 
stylish  and  sleek,  theSRIK  looks  a  little, 
dare  we  say  it,  cheap. 

The  new  design  is  somewhat  bizarre, 
with  the  keyboard  and  touchpad/wrist 
rest  areas  seemingly  separated  from  each 
other.  The  battery  pack  is  no  longer 
integral  with  the  hinge,  the  screen  now 
foldsbackand  under theunit,  which 
works  well  but  takes  a  bit  of  getting 
used  to.  Rounding  off  the  bizarre 
design  changes  is  a  black  plastic 
strip  at  the  front  of  the  case 
which  seems  to  serve  no 
purpose  other  than  to 
spoil  the  usual  sleek 
lines  sported  by 
Sony's  mobile 
computers. 

That  said,  this 
is  a  seriously  improved  product 
specification-wise.  Beating  at  its  heart  is 
a  500M  Hz  Pentium  III  CPU  backed  up  by 
64M  B  of  RAM  and  a  9GB  hard  disk. 
That's  a  pretty  impressive  spec  for  a 
machinethat  only  measures  32  x259  x 
209mm  (h  xw  xd  )  and  weighs  in  at 
1.36kg,  although  theold  505  machine 
weighed  only  1.2kg. 

The  keyboard  is  up  to  the  usual  high 
standard  of  Sony's  machines  and  the 
touchpad  is  equally  impressive.  Not 
quite  so  impressive  is  the  silver  surround 
that  frames  thetouchpad,  although  this, 
like  the  other  design  issues,  is  a  matter  of 
personal  taste. 

The  screen  is  a  10.4in  TFT  display 
with  a  resolution  of  1,024  x768.  This  is  a 
decent  example  of  a  notebook  display 
with  no  dead  pixels  and  even  lighting 
across  the  whole  screen  area.  There's  a 
fair  bit  of  space  surrounding  the  display 
so  it  could  have  been  a  little  larger, 


on  M  emory  Stick.  Also,  there's  no 
port  replicator  bundled,  so  you've 
got  no  serial  or  parallel  ports.  Sony  is 
obviously  expecting  you  to  have  USB 
or  FireW  ire  peripherals.  There  is  a 
tiny  VGA  output  on  the  left-hand  side, 
next  to  the  USB  port  and  inside  the 
boxyou'll  find  a  converter  to  a  standard 
D-SUB  connector. 

Another  first  for  a  Sony  notebook  is 
its  choice  of  operating 
system.  TheSRIK  runs 
Windows  2000 
Professional  rather  than 
Windows 98.  Obviously 
the  improved  power 
management  and  stability 
of  an  NT  kernel  has  swayed 
Sony's  decision  and  the 
system  worked  perfectly 
during  our  tests. 

As  for  performance  the 
SR1K  turned  in  a  SYSmark 
score  of  75,  which  isn't 
ground  breaking  but  is 
more  than  fast  enough  for  its 
target  use. 

There's  nothing  practically 
wrong  with  the  SR1K.  It's  a  joy 
to  use  and  sports  some  great 
features  while  remaining  slim 
and  light.  Admittedly,  the  lack  of 
afloppydriveisan  issue,  but  we 
can't  help  feeling  that  the  change 
in  design  makes  it  a  less  desirable 
product  than  theold  505.  If, 
however,  you  like  the  new  design 
and  don't  need  a  floppydrive,  you'll 
be  very  happy  with  theSRIK. 

RIYAD  EMERAN 


although  it's  still  every  bit  as  good  as  the 
old  505  series  screens. 

M  aking  a  welcome  appearance  is  the 
jog  dial  controller.  This  little  beauty, 
located  atthefront  right-hand  side  of 
case,  allows  the  user  to  scroll  through 
options  and  select  them  by  pressing  the 
dial  inwards.  A  pre-loaded  utility  lets  you 
add  your  own  selections  to  the  jog  dial 
menu  so  that  you  can  launch  your 


word  processor  or 
web  browser  from  it. 

O  n  the  opposite  side  of  the  chassis 
from  the  jog  dial  is  the  second  new 
addition,  a  M  emory  Stick  slot.  Forany 
loyal  Sony  customers  this  is  a  great 
feature  since  you're  more  than  likely  to 
already  have  devices  that  use  this  solid- 
state  memory.  A  notebook  like  this 
would  bean  ideal  companion  fora  Sony 
digital  camera,  where  the  pictures  could 
be  transferred  by  simply  removing  the 
M  emory  Stick  from  the  camera  and 
inserting  it  into  the  notebook. 

H  owever,  as  well  as  getting  a  couple 
of  great  new  features,  you're  also  losing 
somethings.  The  most  obvious  omission 
from  this  package  is  a  floppydrive. 
Whereas  the  old  505  series  and  the 
current  Z600  series  notebooks  ship  with 
an  external  floppydrive,  there's  no  way 
of  getting  data  off  the  SR1K  other  than 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £1,699  (£1,446  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Sony08705  424424 

www.sony.co.uk 

PROS  Small,  light,  well  specified  for  its  size 
CONS  Questionable  design  bySony's 
standards;  no  floppydrive  or  port  replicator 
OVERALL  A  product  that's  let  down  by  its 
lack  of  a  floppy  and  questionable  aesthetics. 
If  you  likethe  new  design,  it's  as  good  asthe 
505  ever  was 


PERFORMANCE  RESULTS 


SYSmark  2000 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


HARDWARE  >  > 


Samsung  IZZI-Pro  Swivel 

A  Windows  CE  device  that  falls  short  in  bridging  the  gap  between  notebooks  and  pocket  PCs 


Not  much  larger  than  a  fairly 

chunky  hard-back  novel,  this  is 
another  full-sized  Windows  CE 
device  that  could  easily  pass  for  a  small 
notebook,  but  it  has  one  crucial 
difference.  As  the  name  suggests,  the 
screen  is  able  to  swivel,  so  as  well  as 
using  it  as  a  regular  keyboard  and  display 
affair  you  can  twist  it  backwards  and  a 
couple  of  magnets  will  keep  it  in 
place  for  use  as  a  pen  tablet. 

But  surely  Windows  CE  makes 
it  a  pocket  PC,  I  hearyou  say.  Well 
not  yet,  because,  although 
M  icrosoft  has  only  released  a 
palm-held  pen-based  version  of 
its  latest  mobile  0  S,  it  plans  to 
port  it  to  keyboarded  devices 
in  thefuture.  WindowsCE 
(2.11  in  this  case)  works 
well  on  devices  of  this  size, 
as  it  is  more  suited  to  the 
8.2in  VGA  screen  than  it 
was  to  the  smaller 
Psion-sized  units. 

There  is  no 
touchpad  or 
trackpoint,  so  we 
were  pleased  to 
see  that  when  used 
as  a  regular  notebook 
the  hinge  on  the  screen  is 
strong  enough  to  prevent  it  from 
swivelling  each  time  we  jabbed  it  with  the 
stylus.  H  owever,  the  image  it  showed  was 
less  than  impressive,  suffering  badly  from 
reflection.  Contrast  can  be  changed  on 
the  keyboard  but,  unfortunately,  this 
doeslittleto  help. 

A  to  u  r  o  f  t  h  e  extern  a  I  ed  ges  revea  I  s  a  n 
impressive  collection  of  ports.  To  the 
right  you  have  a  singleType  II  PC  Card 
slot,  re-set  point,  power  switch  and  a 
V.90  modem.  Around  the  back  you'll 
find  a  fast  IrDA  2.0  port  capableof 
communicating  at  4M  bits/ sec  and  a 
single  USB  port,  although  WindowsCE 
is  well  known  for  having  little  use  for  this 
at  the  moment.  Finally,  on  the  left  is 
where  most  of  the  important  things 
happen  and  here  you'll  find  the  power 
socket  and  Type  II  Compact  Flash  slot. 
This  is  also  where  Samsung  has  located 
the  jacks  for  headphones  and  micto 
supplement  the  built-in  mono 
microphone  and  0.25w  speaker. 

Perhaps  most  important  of  all  are  the 
serial  and  video  interfaces,  the  first  being 
used  to  communicate  with  a  host  PC 
and  the  second  to  send  the  IZZI's  image 


to  an  external  monitor.  Each  of  these  has 
a  proprietary  interface  and  to  connect 
thedeviceto  a  regular  CRT  you  first  have 
to  attach  the  bundled  adaptor  lead  so 
that  it  can  interface  with  your  video 
cable.  FourWalkman-likebuttonson  the 
front  of  the  device  control  audio 
recording  and  playback. 

The  keyboard  feels  satisfying  and  has 
good  travel,  but  we 


couldn't  get 
used  to  the 

undersized  keys.  Sitting 
somewhere  between  a  regular 
notebook  and  a  Psion,  they  were  neither 
onenortheotherand  we  frequently 
found  ourselves  mis-keying.  One  touch 
we  did  like,  however,  was  the  inclusion  of 
a  euro  symbol  on  the  number  5  key. 

Spec-wise,  your  £799  buys  you  a 
192M  Hz  M  IPS  processor  and  32M  B  of 
RAM ,  which  is  enough  to  record  up  to 
60  minutesofvoiceannotation  in  8bit 
mono  and  is  in  addition  to  the  16M  B  of 
RO  M  .  A  smart  IZZI-Pro  applet  in  the 
Control  Panel  lets  you  set  the  modem 
country  code,  catering  for  a  total  of  nine 
countries,  of  which  the  UK,  France, 
Germany,  Norway  and  the  Netherlands 
make  up  the  European  contingent.  The 
applet  also  controls  the  brightness  and 
contrast  settings  as  well  as  the  backlight 
fade  feature  that  slowly  red uces  the 
light's  intensity  if  the  device  is  not  used 


for  a  specified  number  of  seconds.  The 
other  IZZI-specific  application, 

InkWriter,  lets  you  writeon  thescreen 
using  the  stylus.  Whilethisisnot 
translated  to  typewritten  characters,  it  is 
intelligent  enough  to  allow  you  to 
highlight  individual  hand-written  words 
and  apply  simple  formatting. 

We  were  disappointed  that  the  IZZI- 
Pro  did  not  seem  to  switch  off  when  we 
closed  the  lid.  We're  so  used  to  other 
devices  doing  this  that  it  would  be 
easy  to  unwittingly  run 
down  the  battery, 
which  Samsung  states 
has  a  life  of  eight  hours 
and  charges  in  three  and 
a  half.  As  a  whole,  the 
device  is  fairly  heavy, 
tipping  the  scales  at  lkg, 
which  is  surprising  because 
it's  not  particularly  large-  just 
25mm  at  its  thickest  point  and 
228  xl96mm  in  terms  of  width 
and  depth. 

When  we  first  saw  it  we 
thought  we  were 
going  to  like  the  IZZI- 
Pro  Swivel,  but  when 
in  use  it  fares  poorly  in 
comparison  to  other 
WindowsCE  orEPOC-based 
devices  of  a  similar  size.  It  is  let 
down  badlybya  reflective  screen, 
and  thelackof  a  touchpad  or 
trackpoint  is  a  big  disappointment. 

Other  devices,  IBM 's  keyboarded 
WorkPad  being  a  notable  example,  also 
manage  full-sized  VGA  ports,  which 
saves  you  having  to  carry  an  adaptor 
around  with  you. 

NIK  RAWLINSON 


DETAILS 

★★★ 

PRICE  £938.83  (£799  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Samsung 0800  521 652 

www.samsungelectronics.co.uk 
PROS  Good  size;  innovative  tablet 
functionality 

CONS  Small  keyboard;  lots  of  reflection  on 
thescreen;  heavy 

OVERALL  If  you  will  use  both  tablet  and 
notebook  modes  then  this  will  do  what  you 
want,  but  if  your  primary  input  device  will 
bethe  keyboard,  then  the  extra  functionality 
will  not  make  up  for  disappointments  in 
other  areas 


'•U  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


HARDWARE  >  > 


Dell  Inspiron  5000e 

The  updated  Inspiron  has  a  fast  SpeedStep  processor  and  a  large  screen 


Dell's  Inspiron  5000  was  one  of 
the  first  SpeedStep  notebooks 
to  be  put  through  its  paces  in 
the  PCI/I/  labs.  Itsslimmed-down  case 
and  energy-conserving  650M  Hz 
processor  found  favour  with  us  when  we 
awarded  it  four  stars  back  in  April's 
issue.  However,  time  and 
technological  tidewaitfor 
no-oneand  sixmonthson, 
you  can  get  this  750M  H  z 
unit,  the  5000e,  for  much 
the  same  price. 

If  you  believe  the 
marketing  hype, 

SpeedStep  chips  will  save 
power  without  overly 
compromising 
performance  and  our  tests 
bear  this  out.  As  clock 
speeds  continue  their 
seemingly  relentless  march 
upwards,  SpeedStep 
technologyisagood 
investment  for  notebook 
buyers  who  demand 
ultimate  processing  power 
on  their  desktop  and 
excellent  battery  life  on  the 
move,  although  AMD's 
PowerN  ow  is  hot  on  its  heels. 

The  current  top-of-the-range 
SpeedStep  processor,  a  750M  Hz 
Pentium  III,  can  befound  at  the 
heart  of  this  machine.  This  will 
happily  step  down  to  600M  Hz  to 
con  serve  energy  and  automatically  runs 
at  the  lower  speed  whenever  the  unit  is 
not  connected  to  the  mains.  You  can  also 
choose  to  step  the  processor  speed  up  or 
down  manually.  Power  consumption  is 
generally  half  that  when  running  at  full 
speed.  We  managed  to  squeeze  out  three 
hours'  word  processing  from  a  single 
charge  of  the  Inspiron's  battery,  not 
bad  as  the  unit  comes  with  a  power- 
hungry  15in  screen.  The  Inspiron's 
SYSmark  score  of  151  puts  it  on  a  par 
with  similar  specification  desktops  and 
we  noticed  no  disruption  to  streaming 
video  when  switching  between  mains 
and  battery  power. 

Graphics  are  taken  careof  bya  Rage 
M  obility  128  chipset,  backed  with  16M  B 
of  dedicated  video  memory.  Our 
3D  M  ark  2000  benchtest  generally 
refuses  to  run  on  notebooks.  No  such 
problems  here-  the  ATi  chipset  helped 
the  unit  turn  in  a  score  of  1,666.  It  even 
managed  to  run  our  Quake  III  test  at 


20.6fps  in  16bit  colour.  Westill  wouldn't 
recommend  playing  the  latest  3D  games 
on  theunit  though. 

Elsewhere,  there's  128M  B  of  RAM 
and  a  roomy27GB  hard  drive.  A  Sound 
M  aestro  chipset  is  on  audio  duty  and 
there's  a  set  of  integrated  stereo  speakers 
in  the  machine  itself.  That 


15in  screen  we  mentioned  earlier  is 
capable  of  displaying  a  crisp,  stable 
image  at  1,400  x  1,050  and  theSynaptics 
touchpad  and  full-size  keyboard  areas 
good  as  they  come. 

In  the  looks  department,  little  has 
changed  from  the  unit  we  looked  at  back 
in  April.  Other  manufacturers  have 
worked  hard  to  jazz  up  their  systems  but 
Dell  has  keptthefaith  and  the  result  is  a 
rugged,  boxy  unit  in  jet  black,  which  is 
either  conservatively  reassuring  or  a 
missed  opportunity,  depending  on  your 
point  of  view.  That  said,  it's  nowhere 
nearasbulkyasthelnspironsof  old. 

The  Inspiron  is  not  the  most 
expandable  notebook  we've  ever  seen 
but  there  are  still  a  fair  few  connections 
to  exploit.  There  are  just  two  USB  ports 
and  oneTypell  and  two  Type  III  PC  Card 
slots.  It  shouldn't  betoo  much  of  a 
problem  with  a  built-in  modem  under 


the  hood  though.  At  the  rear, 
connectionsfora  monitor,  PS/2 
keyboard  and  mouse  are  present  and 
correct  and  there's  also  an  S-Video 
output,  PCI  docking  connector  and  IR 
port  for  good  measure.  There  is  no  built- 
in  Ethernet  connection,  which  we  found 
strange  for  a  notebook  of  this  size. 

The  Inspiron's  media  bay  is  located 
at  the  front  of  the  unit  and  can 
accommodate  a  second  battery, 
CD-ROM  orZip  drive.  Our  model 
came  with  a  six-speed  DVD-ROM 
drive  and,  coupled  with  that  powerful 
processor,  there  wasn't  a  dropped 
frame  in  sight  when  we  tested  DVD 
movie  playback,  even  in  full-screen 
mode.  There's  a  set  of  handy  buttons 
to  control  the  DVD  drive  and  a  floppy 
drive  located  on  the  left-hand  side  of 
the  chassis.  If  you're  after  a  machine  to 
usealongsideyourdesktop  PC  you 
maywelcometheaddition  but,  if  not,  it 
just  adds  to  the  overall  weight, 
some  3kg  in  total. 

It  may  not  be  the  sleekest  of 
notebooks  and  it's  not  going  to 
win  anydesign  awards  but  if 
you 're  after  a  rugged, 
top-performing  unit, 
you  can't  go  far 
wrong  with 
the  Inspiron 
5000e.  The 
750MHz 
SpeedStep 
processor  is  more  than  ableto 
handletoday'sapplicationsand  it  helps 
eek  o  u  t  p  r  ec  i  o  u  s  b  a  tt  ery  I  i  f  e. 

RICHARD  MCPARTLAND 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £2,406.40  (£2,048  exVAT) 
CONTACT  Dell  0870  907  5664 

www.dell.co.uk 

PROS  Top  processing  power;  excellent  screen 

and  easy  on  the  battery 

CONS  Not  the  most  expandable  notebook  or 

the  best-looking;  no  Ethernet 

OVERALL  A  top-performing,  fairly-priced 

system.  If  it's  ultimate  processing  power  you're 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


IBM  I  series  Thinkpad 

A  solid  notebook  for  the  budget-conscious  that  is  well  configured  but  has  an  average  screen 


IBM  has  madea  namefor  itself  in  the 
notebook  sector  by  consistently 
producing  very  high-quality 
products.  These  have  traditionally  been 
very  pricey  however,  and  more  suitable 
for  the  corporate  space.  The  market  has 
changed  slightly,  though,  and  recently  we 
have  seen  some  large  names 
chasing  the  lower  end  of  the 
market.  IBM  is  no  exception, 
and  its  I  seriesThinkpads  are 
designed  to  bean  affordable 
alternative  to  the  A  and  T 
series  models,  but  without 
compromising  quality. 

We've  taken  a  look  at  one 
of  the  midrange  I  series  1200 
notebooks,  the  257.  A  quick 
glance  at  its  spec  sheet  will 
leave  you  unmoved.  There  is 
a  MobileCeleron  inside, 
clocked  at  500M  H  z,  together 
with  64M  B  of  SDRAM ,  and 
6GB  hard  drive.  This  is, 
admittedly,  very  under¬ 
whelming  although  this  does 
manage  to  beat  the  Sony  Viao 
PCG-SR1K  in  SYSmark  2000 
(see  page  82).  Speedy 
performance  has  never  been  a 
Thinkpad  virtue,  however,  and  to 
an  extent  the  score  is  fairly 
unimportant,  asthisstill  has 
enough  power  to  perform  all  the 
functions  it  is  intended  for. 

Where  theThinkpad  usually  scores 
is  in  build  quality,  and  wecertainly 
can't  think  of  another  model  that  feels 
so  robust  at  this  price.  The  unit  feels 
morelikea  tankthan  a  notebook,  and 
should  beableto  withstand  some 
knocking  around  in  transport.  It 
maintainstheuniquedesign  of  other 
Thinkpads  that  you'll  either  like  or  not. 

Thekeyboard  is  very  good.  Thelayout 
is  excellent,  with  all  of  the  near  full-size 
keys  placed  in  similar  positions  to  their 
desktop  counterparts.  IBM  is  one  of  the 
few  manufacturers  to  ensure  that  a  full- 
size  return  key  is  present,  and  the  keys  are 
very  responsive  with  good  travel.  Unlike 
other  low-cost  notebooks,  this  keyboard 
has  a  rock  solid  base. 

Control  of  the  pointer  is  achieved 
through  thetrackpoint.  Again,  it  is  one 
of  those  things  that  you  either  love  or 
hate.  O  ur  verdict  is  that  it  can  take  some 
getting  used  to,  but  once  you  do,  it 
certainly  offers  a  higher  degree  of 
precision  control  over  the  pointer  than  a 


standard  touchpad.  There's  a  new  scroll 
button  underneath  the  standard  two 
selector  buttons  (which  are  themselves 
both  veryeasyto  reach  and  press).  Press 
thisthird  button  and  move  the 
trackpoint  up  or  down,  and  you  can 
scroll  easily  through  your  current 


window.  Thisstops 
you  having  to  move  the  pointer  to 
the  side  of  the  screen  to  scroll;  a  feature 
we  found  saved  us  a  lot  of  wrist  ache. 

IBM  has  compromised  on  thedisplay 
to  help  keep  the  cost  down,  and  we 
found  thisa  littledisappointing.  The 
12.1in  screen  has  a  native  resolution  of 
800  x600,  something  that  is  looking  a 
little  old  hat  with  the  number  of  1,024  x 
768  screens  around,  even  at  this  price.  It 
displays  a  good  image,  though,  and 
considering  the  high  build  qualityofthe 
rest  of  the  system,  it  will  be  a  fair 
compromise  for  budget-conscious  users. 

Dotted  around  the  side  of  the  case 
are  two  USB  ports,  a  singleType  III  or 
two  Type  II  PC  Card  slots,  a  D-SUB, 
parallel,  56K  modem,  PS/2,  headphone 
out  and  microphone  in  sockets.  There's 
also  a  24-speed  CD-ROM . 

The  battery  is  a  nickel-metal  hydride 


(Ni-M  H)  version.  We've  got  used  to 
seeing  lithium-ion  (Li-Ion)  batteries  in 
notebooks,  but  this  isn't  necessarily  a 
problem.  What  it  does  mean,  however,  is 
that  the  notebook's  weight  is  increased. 

It  also  means  that  the  battery  will  suffer 
from  increased  memory  effect,  requiring 
the  battery  to  befully  discharged  and 
recharged  to  maintain  good 
performance.  Wewereunableto 
evaluate  the  battery's  performance, 
however,  as  the  model  was  supplied  with 
a  faulty  battery  that  only  managed  to  last 
around  30  minutes.  This  is  clearly 
anomalous,  and  IBM  quotes  battery  life 
as  being  two  hours  36  minutes. 

W  e  were  i m p ressed  wi t h  t h e  way  i  n 
which  theThinkpad  was  configured.  It 
comes  with  an  array  of  useful  utilities 
designed  to  help  newcomers  configure 
and  use  the  notebook,  and  these  are  very 
well  put  together  with  some  valuable 
shortcuts  and  tips.  This  model  comes 
with  Lotus  SmartSuite  M  illennium  as 
standard,  and  this  is  good  to  see  as 
manyrivalsship  with  littleor  no 
software  bundled.  You  also  get  a 
copy  of  Ringcentral  Fax. 

This  product  is  by  no 
means  perfect,  but  when  you 
consider  its  low  price  it 
becomes  a  lot  more 
impressive.  The  build 
qualityand  keyboard 
are  particularly 
good  and,  if  you  are 
prepared  to  overlook  its  slow 
performance  and  average  screen,  this 
would  bea  good  purchase  for  budget¬ 
conscious  users. 

JASON  JENKINS 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £1,328.93  (£1,131  exVAT) 

CONTACT  IBM  01475  555  055 

www.pc.ibm.com/uk 

PROS  Good  build  qualityand  keyboard;  low 

cost;  well  configured 

CONS  No  floppy  drive;  average  screen 

OVERALL  A  Thinkpad  forthe  masses.  IBM 

has  cut  a  few  comers,  but  this  is  still  a  good 

product 


PERFORMANCE  RESULTS  .V; 

0  100  200  300  nl 


86 

SYSmark  2000 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


Hercules  3D  Prophet  II  MX 

A  card  that  has  most  of  the  advantages  of  the  GeForce2  GTS  products  at  a  much  lower  price 


Graphics  cards  based  on 
nVidia'sGeForce2  MX 
Graphics  Processing  Unit 
(GPU)  should  be  on  the  shelves  by  the 
time  you  read  this.  The  M  X  is  a  cut-down 
version  of  theGeForce2  GTS  chip  that 
features  heavily  in  this  month's  graphics 
card  group  test  (see  page  194).  It  is 
intended  to  deliver 
powerful  3D 
acceleration,  but 
without  the  weighty 
price  tag  associated 
with  the  GTS  version. 

Technology-wise,  the 
GeForce2  MX  is  similar  to  the 
GeForce2  GTS.  The  M  X  and 
the  GTS  both  have  hardware 
Transform  and  Lighting  (T&L) 
engines,  making  the  MX  the  first 
budget  card  to  support  such  a  feature. 
The  MX  also  utilises  the  0.18micron 
technologyoftheGTS,  albeit  with  a 
different  clock  speed 
and  architecture. 

Thefirst  difference  with  the  M  X  is  in 
the  texturing  pipelines.  Instead  of  the 
four  pipelines  used  by  both  theGTS 
and  the  256  chips,  the  M  X  has 
two  pipelines.  Both 
GeForce2  chips  map  two 
texels  per  clock  cycle  (dual¬ 
texture  pipelines),  whereas 
theolder  256  employs 
single-texture  pipelines.  This 
means  the  GTS  produces  eight 
textures  per  cycle  to  the  M  X'  and 
256'sfour. 

The  second  difference  is  that  the 
core  of  the  MX  runs  at  175M  Hz, 
compared  to  200M  H  z  in  the  GTS 
and  120M  Hzin  the256.  This  allows 
the  MX  to  produce  a  pixel  fill  rate  of 
350megapixels/sec,  and  a  texel  fill  rateof 
700megatexels/sec.  These  are  staggering 
numbers,  although  comparison  with 
both  the  256  and  GTS  is  interesting. 
The256can  produce480megapixels/sec 
and  480megatexels/sec.  TheGTS  by 
contrast  produces  a  mammoth 
800megapixels/secand  1.6giga- 
texels/sec.  With  theabilityto  generate20 
million  triangles  per  second  the  M  X  falls 
exactly  between  theGTS  with  25  million 
and  the  256  with  15  million  triangles. 

As  for  memory,  it  uses  32MB  single 
data  rate  (SDR)  SDRAM ,  whereas  the 
256  comes  with  either  32M  B  of  SDR 
RAM  or  32M  B  of  Double  Data  Rate 
(DDR)  RAM  .  All  GTS-based  cards,  by 


respectively.  At  the  same  resolution  at 
32bit  colour  and  textures,  the  same 
spread  of  results  was  evident. 

At  1,600  xl, 200  with  32bit  colour 
and  textures,  the  M  X  achieved  17.6fps  in 
Quake  III.  Obviously  this  is  a  virtually 
unplayableframerate,  but  it  does 
highlight  the  power  of  this  card.  By 
co  ntrast,  the  C  reati  ve  D  D  R  G  eFo  rce  card 
managed  22.5fps,  while  on  average,  GTS 
cards  achieved  around  27fps.  The  Matrox 
G400  and  ATi  All-in-Wonder  Pro 
managed  less  than  lOfps  each,  yet  both 
of  these  cards  cost  around  £30  more 
than  the  M  X.  H  aving  said  that,  you  do  get 
extra  functionality  with  these  two  cards. 

If  you  havea  monitorwith  a  maximum 
resolution  of  1,024x768,  this  card  will  be 
ideal.  With  full  scene  anti-aliasing  (FSAA  - 
see  page  205)  switched  on,  running 
Q uake III  at  16bit,  the M  X produced 
32.2fps,  and  it  looked  spectacular. 

With  cards  costing  around  £129 
inc  VAT, 
thisisa 
well  priced 
way  of 

getting  excellent 
graphics,  and  it  allows 
nVidia  to  cover  a  part  of  the  market 
it  previously  couldn't  touch.  Considering 
the  quality  of  this  card,  the  company  may 
well  corner  the  market;  and  with 
TwinView  models  in  the  pipeline,  M  atrox's 
days  maybe  numbered  astheforceto  be 
reckoned  with  in  dual-displayoptionstoo. 

SCOTT  MONTGOMERY 


contrast,  use  DDR  RAM ,  for  which  the 
GPU  is  optimised. 

O  ne  of  the  first  GeForce2  M  X  cards  is 
the  Hercules  3D  Prophet  II  MX.  As  with 
the  other  H  ercules  cards  it  sports  the 
blue  board  and  electric  blue  heatsink.  As 
the  memory  is  running  at  the  lower 

frequency,  the  SDRAM  does  not 
sport  the  heatsinks  of  the 
GTS  versions  -  but 
then  the  memory 
doesn't  run  at 
nearly  the 


temperature  of  the  DDR  RAM  . 
Thesamecannot  besaid  of  the 
processor,  which  ran  fairly  hot.  This  may 
be  in  some  part  due  to  the  passive 
cooling  (theGPU  is  covered  bya 
heatsink  without  a  fan).  This  card  is 
about  half  the  height  of  the  GTS  version. 

We  tested  the  card  using  the  same 
machine  and  tests  as  for  this  month's 
group  test  (see  page  206  for  an 
explanation),  and  used  nVidia's 
reference  drivers  (version  5.32).  The 
results  show  this  card  to  bean  excellent 
performer  for  the  price. 

Running  Quake  III  at  1,280x1,024 
with  16bit  colour  and  textures,  the  M  X 
blasted  out  45.3  frames  per  second 
(fps).  At  the  same  resolution  in  3D M  ark 
2000  it  achieved  a  score  of  3,223.  These 
scores  are  around  two-thirds  of  those  of 
GTS-based  cards,  but  then  at  around 
two-thirds  the  price  of  the  cheapest 
GeForce2  GTS  card,  you're  getting  better 
valuefor  money.  By  comparison,  the 
Creative  3D  Blaster  Annihilator  (SDR 
version)  and  the  same  card  with  DDR 
memory,  straddled  the  MX  card  with 
3DM  ark  scores  of  2, 818  and  3,686 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £129  (£109.79  exVAT) 

CO  NTACT  H  ercules  020  8686  5600 
www.hercules.com 
PROS  A  good  performer  for  the  price 
CONS  NotinthesameleagueastheGeForce2 
GTS  versions,  but  excellent  nonetheless 
OVERALL  The  GeForce2  MX  brings  most  of 
the  benefits  of  the  Geforce2  GTS  cards,  but  at 
a  fraction  of  the  price 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Cyber-shot  DSC-F505V 

Even  without  making  full  use  of  the  CCD,  Sony's  camera  has  enough  improvements  to  set  it  apart 


Let'sfaceit,  onlySony would  make 
a  camera  that  looks  like  this.  The 
lens  appears  oversized,  but  that's 
because  it's  the  bit  you're  supposed  to 
hold,  resting  it  in  your  left  hand  and 
leaving  the  small  body  free  to  rotate  90 
degrees  upwards  or  50  degrees 
downwards  with  a  gentle  push  from  your 
rightthumb.  This  lets  you  compose  with 
the  screen  from  a  variety  of  tricky  angles, 
such  as  over  people's  heads  -  cunning 
stuff.  The2in  hybrid  TFT  screen  works 
well  in  direct  sunlight,  which  is  a  good 
job,  since  there's  no  optical  viewfinder. 

Dedicated  followers  of  gadgets  will, 
however,  have  seen  this  camera  before: 
originally  called  the  F505  and  featuring  a 
2.1megapixel  CCD,  we  reviewed  it  back 
in  December's  issue.  NowtheF505  is 
back,  suffixed  by  a  letter  V  and  boasting 
a  3.3megapixel  CCD.  Or  does  it? 

Theoptical  system  of  theoriginal  505 
was  designed  for  a  CCD  measuring 
half  an  inch,  but  the  new 
3.3megapixel  chip  in  the  V  is 
slightly  larger  at  one-and- 
one-eighth  inches. 

Redesigning  the 
optical  system 
was  too  complex, 
so  Sony  popped 
in  the  larger  chip 
and  accepted  that 
not  all  the  pixels 
would  be  used. 

Consequently, 
instead  of  the  2,048  x 
1,536  resolution  of  other 
3.3megapixel  cameras,  the 
V  only  musters  1,856  xl, 392 
(2.6megapixels).  This  is  still 
higher  than  the  1,600  xl, 200 
resolution  of  a  2.1megapixel  model 
though,  and  sufficient  to  make  a  9  x7in 
inkjet  print  -  just  an  inch  or  so  smaller 
than  a  true  3.3  model  could  deliver. 

There's  only  one  jpeg  compression 
setting,  creating  files  around  1.1M  B  - 
you'll  get  about  six  images  on  the  meagre 
8M  B  M  emory  Stick  supplied.  Sony  also 
offers  a  2,240x1,680  interpolated  mode 
that  delivers  jpegs  measuring  1.5M  B  and 
smoothes  output  on  slightly  larger 
prints.  Unlike  theoriginal  505,  theV 
offers  an  uncompressed  tiff  mode,  which 
also  works  at  all  resolutions.  Like  the 
S70,  theValso  hasa  mono  GIF  modefor 
cleanly  capturing  text  and  diagrams  on 
white  or  blackboards.  Other  resolutions 
include  1,280  x960,  640  x480  and  a 


special  320  x240  email  mode;  curiously, 
the  email,  tiff  and  gif  modes  also  create  a 
standard  jpeg  file  at  the  same  time. 

Usersof  theoriginal  505  will 
understand  why  Sony  was  so  keen  to 
retain  theoptical  section.  Rather  than 
your  average  3x  lens,  the  V  boasts  a  great 
quality  5xoptical  Carl  Zeiss  lens  with  an 
extremely  responsive  motorised  zoom  - 
it'll  even  focus  as  close  as  2cm.  The  focal 
length  is  equivalent  to  a  38-190mm  lens 
on  a  35mm  camera;  the  actual  specs  are 
7.1-35. 5mm,  f2. 8-3.3. 

Since  the  optics  are  already  standing 
proud,  theV  is  readyfor  action  in  a  mere 
two  seconds  and 
can  power 


down  immediately, 
compared  to  the  excruciating 
five  seconds  you  can  wait  for  other 
cameras  to  startup  or  retract  their 
lenses.  There's  also  a  proper  52mm  filter 
thread  and  manual  focus  ring. 
Recognising  that  manually  focusing  on  a 
low-resolution  LCD  screen  can  betricky, 
Sony  has  cleverly  instructed  theVto 
temporarily  enlarge  the  central  portion 
for  a  closer  look.  You  can  also  zoom  in 
up  to  five  times  and  pan  around  images 
during  playback. 

Theoriginal  505  had  shutter  and 
aperture  priority  modes,  but  they  were 
hidden  deep  within  menus.  TheV  makes 
them  much  easier  to  adjust  and  offers  a 
choice  of  seven  aperture  settings  and  19 
shutter  speeds:  from  eight  seconds  to 
one-thousandth  of  a  second  -  a  big 
improvement  over  the  one-eighth  of  a 
second  slowest  speed  of  the  505.  The 


half-stop  exposure  compensation 
increments  of  the  505  have  been  refined 
to  one-third  stops  and  there's  also  a 
spot-metering  option. 

Theflash  brightness  can  beadjusted 
and  there's  a  sync  plug  for  an  external 
flashgun.  Movie  mode  captures  up  to  15 
seconds  of  M  PEG  1  video  at  320x240 
(measuring  5.2M  B  in  H  igh  Q  uality  mode) 
or  60  seconds  at  160  x  120,  both  at  15fps 
with  mono  audio;  unlikethe S70,  you  can 
usethezoom  while  recording.  Once 
connected  to  your 

PC  using  USB,  thecamera  memoryis 
simplymounted  asa  removabledrivefrom 
which  you  can  drag  files;  there's  an  AV 
outputtoyourTVtoo.ThelnfoLithium 
battery  is  good  for  around  70 

minutes,  charges  in  110 
and  handilyfeeds 
back  how  many 
minutes  of  life  are 
remaining  on 
screen. 

Compared 
to  theoriginal 
505,  the  new  V 
model  has  many 
worthy  improve¬ 
ments.  Image  quality 
is  excellent,  but  if  you 
look  extremely  closely,  theS70 
and  other  genuine  3. 3megapixel 
cameras  definitely  resolve  a  fraction 
moredetail.  TheS70  is  also  £100 
cheaper,  boasts  longer  battery  life  and 
consequently  remains  our  recommended 
digital  camera.  Photography  enthusiasts 
will,  however,  be  happy  to  pay  for  the  V's 
improved  handling,  not  to  mention  its 
superb  lens  -  just  try  to  forget  about 
those  redundant  pixels. 

GORDON  LAING 

DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £849  (£722.55  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Sony0990 111999 

www.sony.co.uk 

PROS  Superb  handling,  great  features  and 
the  best  lens  in  thedigital  camera  market 
CONS  Infuriatinglydoesn'tusethe whole 
3.3megapixel  chip;  memory  card  a  meagre 
8MB 

OVERALL  Notquitetheultimatecamera, 
but  hardcore  photographers  will  prefer  it  to 
So  ny's  S70;  everyo  ne  else  sho  uld  stick  with  the 
S70,  though 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  t 


PERIPHERALS  >  > 


Creative  WebCam  Go  Plus 

Taking  a  cue  from  its  worthy  predecessor,  this  webcam  exudes  quality  at  a  competitive  price 


If  you  want  the  stats,  it's  got  twice 
the  memory  of  its  predecessor  - 
8M  B  instead  of  4M  B  -  and  now  has 
a  built-in  mic.  It's  also  silver  rather  than 
black  and  has  a  sharper 
lens,  but  apart 
from  that  this 
is  largely  a 
repeat  of  the 
WebCam 
Go.Thisisa 
good  thing, 
since  it  was 
the  first  major 
innovation  on 
the  webcam  scene 
for  years,  being  the 
first  you  could  unplug  and 
use  as  a  low-res  handheld  stills 
snapper  or  video  camera. 

Image  quality  is  excellent,  putting  to 
shame  many  of  its  competitors.  The 
software  bundle,  too,  is  first  class  and 
theWebCam  Go  Control,  which  you'll 
probably  find  yourself  using  most  often 
is  intuitive  and  quick  to  learn.  It  lets  you 


tailor  precisely  how  the  camera  is  used 
and  manuallytweakthevideo  settings. 

From  here  you  can  control  everything 
from  brightness  and  contrast  to  zoom 
and  saturation  and  even  invoke  special 
settings  for  fluorescent 
lighting  -  great 
in  offices. 

TheWeb¬ 
Cam  Go 
Control  has  an 
integrated 
album  and  it's 
here  that  you'll 
save  the  images  and 
movies  you've  captured 
whileyour  camera  has 
been  unplugged.  Photoscan 
be  saved  in  jpeg  or  bmp  format 
and  selecting  the  jpeg  option  lets 
you  adjust  the  compression.  Saving 
your  videos  gives  the  choice  of  seven 
compression  engines  and  the  ability  to 
manually  set  the  speed  at  which  frames 
are  displayed. 

You  can  detach  your  Webcam  Go 


Plus  and  snap  up  to  150  pictures  at  640 
x480  in  32bit  colour,  each  accompanied 
by  voice  annotations,  before  the  internal 
memory  is  full.  It'll  also  record  movies, 
albeit  short  ones,  at  30fps  (352  x288 
resolution)  and  15fps  (640x480). 

Sadly,  the  documentation  is  scant 
and  there  is  no  bundled  software  for 
auto-uploading  images  to  a  website  but 
this  can  be  downloaded  from  shareware 
libraries  on  the  Internet.  However,  this 
product  isstill  fantastic  valuefor  money. 

NIK  RAWLINSON 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £129  (£109.79  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Creative01189  344  744 
www.europe.creative.com 

PROS  Inexpensive;  can  be  used  as  a  digicam; 
great  software  bundle;  first-class  imagequality 
CONS  Poor  documentation;  no  Internet- 
upload  software 

OVERALL  The  best  webcam  option  byfar 


Samsung  SyncMaster 

Samsung's  SyncM  aster  SM 179M  P  LCD  monitor  will  do  much  more  than  just  give  you  TFT  TV 


Cards  that  let  you  watch  TV  on 
your  PC  are  cheap  and  readily 
available,  so  you  might  question 
the  point  of  paying  a  premium  for  an 
LCD  panel  with  a  built-in  TV  tuner. 
There's  a  lot  of  point,  if  you  are  talking 
about  Samsung's  SyncM  aster  SM  179M  P 
LCD  monitor. 

It  looks  good,  with  a  steel-grey 
case  and  a  well-designed 
base  that  swivels  to  double 
asa  handle-  useful  if  you 
need  to  totethedisplay 
around  for  presentations. 

Bolt-holes  at  the  back 
provideforwall  orarm 
mounting.  The  17in 
screen,  equivalent  in 
viewing  area  to  a  19in 
cathode-raytube,  offers 
acrispdisplaywithawide 
angle  of  view  at  resolutions 
up  to  1,280x1,024. 

You  can  use  it  as  a  TV  while 
your  PC  is  turned  off,  which  you 
cannot  do  with  a  PC  Card,  and  two  extra 


video  inputs  let  you  connect  a  video  or 
DVD  recorder,  or  surveillance  cameras. 

Each  of  these  sources  may  be  viewed 
full  screen  or  in  a  resizeable  window  that 
you  can  move  around  your  desktop 
whileyou  work.  Thedisplaycomes  with 
S-Video,  SCART  and  RCA  cables  and 
adaptors,  and  a  TV-style  remote  control. 

Forthosewho 
routinely  lose 
remote  controls, 
you  can  also  control 
thedisplayusing 
unobtrusive  front- 
panel  buttons.  A 
pass-through  port 
enables  the  PC  and 
TV  audio  to  use 
the  same  speakers 
or  headphones. 

Setup,  via  an  on¬ 
screen  menu,  is  pain¬ 
less,  although  the  device 
we  saw  seemed  reluctant 
to  reduce  its  brightness - 
desktop  LCDs  going  at 


full  blast  can  be  wearing  on  the  eyes. 

The  179M  P  is  likely  to  find  a  ready 
market  among  finance  workers  and 
executives  who  need  a  news  feed  at  their 
desktops,  as  well  as  video  editors  and 
home  workers  who  need  to  keep  a 
camera  eye  on  the  kids  or  front  door. 

It  does  not  come  cheap,  but  there  is  a 
15in  version  for  the  less  well  off.  For 
those  who  can  afford  the  17in  version, 
though,  it  is  an  ingenious  piece  of  kit. 

CLIVE  AKASS 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £2,137  (£1,819  exVAT) 
CONTACT  Samsung 0800  521  652 

www.samsungelectronics.co.uk 

PROS  Looksgood;  largecrisp display; 
versatile 

CONS  Cumbersome  VGA  lead;  no  DVI 
OVERALL  A  tax-deductible  luxury  that  is 
great  if  you  can  afford  one;  the  15in  version 
looks  a  good  cheaper  option 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


PERIPHERALS  >  > 


Panasonic  DVD-RAM 

— -  The  LF-D201  DVD-RAM  drive  ups  speed  and  capacity  and  will  quickly  make  itself  indispensable 


A  couple  of  years  ago  Panasonic 
released  the  first  DVD-RAM 
drive  onto  the  market  and 
redefined  PC  removable  storage  in  the 
process.  The  most  amazing  aspect  of  the 
drive  was  the  cost  of  the  media,  with  a 
5.2GB  double-sided  disc  costing  less 
than  £25.  This  gave  data-heavy  users  an 
afford  able  way  to  protect  and  transport 
their  files,  while  the  30-year  lifetime  of 
the  discs  meant  that  the  data  was  safe 
even  after  a  significant  storage  time. 

Now  DVD-RAM  has  become  an  even 
more  attractive  medium  with  the  release 
of  the  LF-D201  drive.  This  latest  unit 
from  Panasonic  has  increased  the  disc 
capacityfrom  2.6GB  persideto  4.7GB 
per  side.  Anyonewho  knowsanything 
about  DVD  will  realise  that  this  means  a 
DVD-RAM  disc  can  now  hold  thesame 
amount  of  data  per  side  as  a  single-layer 
DVD-Video  or  DVD-ROM  disc.  This 
brings  DVD-RAM  into  a 
completely 
new  market, 
where  the 
media  can  be 
used  for  pre¬ 
mastering 
DVD  discs, 
thus  cutting  %  p — - 

out  the  need 
for  expensive 

DVD-R  or  DLT  (digital  linear  tape) 
solutions.  Of  course,  this  does  depend 
on  DVD-RAM  being  accepted  by  the 
mastering  industry,  otherwise  you  could 
find  yourself  having  to  transfer  the  data 
onto  DLT  anyway. 

The  drive  itself  is  a  standard  5.25in 
device  that  resembles  a  DVD-ROM  drive. 
Onedisappointment  isthelossofthe 
loading  mechanism  employed  bythe 
2.6GB  drive  where  the  media  was 
inserted  between  two  arms  that  extended 
from  the  chassis.  Instead,  pressing  the 
eject  button  results  in  the  appearance  of 
a  standard  tray  that  accepts  both 
caddied  and  emptymedia.Thefrontof 
the  unit  is  fairly  bare  with  onlyan  eject 
button,  indicator  light,  headphonejack 
and  volume  wheel.  Like  the  previous 
drive,  the  retail  package  comes  with  a 
SCSI  interface,  although  there  will  bean 
OEM  ATAPI  drive  available.  At  the  rear 
you'll  find  a  power  socket,  SCSI 
connector,  SCSI  id  jumpers  and  an 
audio-out  port. 

The  drive  is  completely  compatible 
with  existing  2.6GB  per  side  media  as 


well  as thenew 4.7GB  per sidediscs. 
Unfortunately,  the4.7GB  discs  cannot 
be  read  or  written  to  bythe  older  drives, 
but  that's  pretty  much  par  for  the  course 
when  a  product  line  is  upgraded. 

TheLF-D201  ships  with  a  driver  disc 
and  a  suite  of  application  software.  The 
driver  includes  a  format  utility  and  a  set 
of  tools.  Thediscs  can  beformatted 
using  FAT16,  FAT32,  UDF1.5  and 
UDF2.0.  Using  a  FAT  format  is  the 
quickest  option,  but  it  will  reduce  the 
capacityto  4.3GB  on  a  4.7GB  disc.  Also, 
using  UDF  (Universal  Disc  Format)  will 
allow  the  disc  to  be  read  byWindows9x, 
NT  or  Mac  OS  systems.  On  the 
application  front  you  get  an  M  PEG1 
encoder  and  an  MPEG-editing  program 
to  cut  your  own  movies.  Also  thrown  in  is 
a  backup  utilityand  a  program  to 


facilitatethe 

copying  of  DVD-RAM  discs,  even  if 
you  don't  have  enough  room  on  your 
hard  disk  to  copyall  thedata  from  the 
source  media. 

As  with  the  previous  discs,  the 
double-sided  9.4GB  variants  are  sealed 
in  thecaddy,  but  the  single-sided  4.7GB 
versions  can  be  removed.  However,  the 
LF-D201  hastheabilityto  write  to  a  bare 
disc  as  well  as  read  from  it  and  to 
capitalise  on  this  feature  you  can  also 
buy  single-sided  media  in  a  standard 
jewel  case  without  a  caddy.  In  our  tests 
there  seemed  to  be  no  performance 
difference  between  writing  to  a  bare  disc 
oroneinacaddy. 

Wetested  theLF-D201  against  its 
older  2.6GB  sibling  and  the  performance 
gains  exhibited  bythe  new  unit  are 
significant.  Copying  a  337M  B  fileto  a 
2.6GB  disc  on  theold  drive  took  13 
minutes  11  seconds,  compared  to  five 
minutes  14  seconds  on  the  LF-D201  with 
4.7GB  media.  Wealso  copied  a  94M  B 
folder  with  a  mixture  of  files,  thistooksix 
minutes  38  seconds  on  theold  drive  and 


only  two  minutes  eight  seconds  on  the 
new  one.  Reading  the  337M  B  fileand 
the94M  B  folder  from  theold  2.6GB 
drivetookfour  minutes  two  secondsand 
one  minute  43  seconds  respectively, 
whileon  theLF-D201  thesame 
operations  took  two  minutes  five 
secondsand  30  seconds  flat.  Obviously 
Panasonic  has  worked  hard  to  improve 
the  performance  of  the  new  d rive, 
although  the  increased  areal  density  of 
the  new  media  also  helps. 

Panasonic  sees  DVD-RAM  as  the 
way  forward  for  rewritable  media  and, 
having  had  a  look  at  its  DVD-RAM 
consumer  video  recorder,  we  have  to 
admit  that  it's  a  compelling  argument. 
Add  to  this  thefact  that  within  a  few 
months  most  DVD-ROM  drives  will  be 
ableto  read  this  new  DVD-RAM  media 
and  theLF-D201  looks  even  more 

attractive. 
It's  also 
worth 
considering 
that  the 
LF-D201 
only  costs 
£319  ex 

VAT  and  a  9.4GB 
disc  will  only  set  you 
back£34.99. 

This  is  a  great  product  for 
anyonewho  needs  to  store  large 
amounts  of  data  offline,  or  anyone  who 
needs  to  transport  very  large  files.  Fora 
professional  photographer  who's 
goingdigital,  a  device  like  this  will  be 
a  godsend.  If  the  rest  of  the  industry 
follows  Panasonic's  lead,  we  may  have 
a  rewritable  media  that  can  be  used  in 
your  PC,  your  living  room  and  every 
other  area  of  your  life. 

RIYAD  EMERAN 

DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £374.82  (£319  exVAT); 

9.4GB  media  £41  (34.99  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Panasonic  0845  600  3535 
www.panasonic.co.uk 
PROS  Huge  capacity;  good  performance; 
great  valuefor  money 
CONS  None 

OVERALL  A  superb  update  of  an  already 
great  product.  If  you  need  high-capacity 
removable  storage,  this  should  betopof 
your  list 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Polaroid  vs  NEC  projector 

The  Polaroid  SVGA  238  and  the  N  EC  M  ultisync  VT540G  battle  for  projector  supremacy 


These  two  LCD  projectors  are 

aimed  at  users  on  the  move  who 
need  to  displayPC-based 
demonstrations  to  audiences  of  up  to  50 
or  so  people.  Key  features  are  compact¬ 
ness,  ease  of  setup  and  operation  in  often 
less-than-ideal  environments  and,  at  the 
end  of  a  hard  day's  demonstrating,  the 
option  to  hook  it  up  to  your  DVD  player 
for  some  well  deserved  home-cinema 
entertainment.  Both  projectors  are 
NTSC  and  PAL-compatible  and  feature 
S-Video  connectors 

The  Polaroid  SVGA  238  (pictured 
right)  is  small  and  light,  weighing  in  at 
3.2kg.  It  is  certainly  a  highly  functional 
device,  but  it's  not  beautiful.  All  the 
input  portsareon  thesidepanel,  which 
makes  them  much  easier  to  get  at  than  if 
theywereattherear.  As  well  as  RGB  in 
and  out  ports  there  are  inputs  for 
S-Video,  RCA  phono  video  and  audio. 
RS232  and  USB  connections  are 
provided,  so  you  can  use  the  remote  to 
control  your  PC's  mouse  pointer.  There's 
an  integrated  laser  pointer,  activated  by 
a  button  on  the  control.  All  the  cables 
that  you  will  need  for  these  connections, 
both  for  PC  and  M  ac,  are  supplied  and 
for  this  Polaroid  is  to  be  congratulated. 

Setup  involved  attaching  the  projector 
to  the  computer's  video  connector,  and 
switching  on.  The  Polaroid  is  an  800  x 
600  native  resolution  version  and  can 
display  what  the  documentation  refers  to 
as  1,024x768 
compressed. 

At  the 
maximum 
resolution  in 
16.7  million 
colours  the 
image  was  clear, 
sharp  and  stable. 

The  150w  lamp 
produces  1,000 
lumens,  bright  enough 
for  comfortable  viewing 
in  a  well  lit  room  with  a 
screen  to  projector  distance 
of  around  3m,  giving  a  screen 
imageof  about  1.75m  width  at thewide- 
angle  lens  setting.  The  maximum  distance 
is  specified  as  just  over  11m  -  giving  a 
picture  width  of  6.7m. 

Menu  functions  can  be  accessed 
from  the  top  panel,  or  using  the  remote, 
and  they  include  the  all-important  digital 
keystone  correction.  The  remote  is  a  long 
slim  number  that  fits  neatly  into  the 


hand  and  has  numerous  logically  located 
function  buttons  together  with  a  central 
four-way  rocker 'mouse'  and  a  moulded 
index-finger  trigger  on  the  bottom  which 
acts  as  a  left  mouse  button.  The  menu  is 
split  into  four  sections  -  image, 
installation,  feature  and  signal.  You  can 
tweak  the  input  signal  settings  and  all  the 
changes  can  be  memorised. 

TheNECM  ultisync  VT540G 
(below)  looksa  lot  nicer  than 
the  Polaroid.  It's  grey, 
more  rounded  and 
has  a  number  of 
practical  design 
features,  including 
an  extendable  carry 
handle,  remote 
docking  port  for  the 
tiny  card  remote,  fourIR 
receivers  at  the  front,  back  and 
either  side  and  recessed  top  panel 
controls.  Thefront-mounted  AC  power 
connector  is  unorthodoxand  it's  hard  to 
see  what  the  advantage  of  this 
positioning  is.  At  3.9kg  it's  a  little  bigger 
and  heavier  than  the  Polaroid. 

The  N  EC  540  has  a  native  resolution 
of  1,024  x768  and  a  160w  lamp.  The 
maximum  picture  size  and  distance  is 
practically  same  as  the  Polaroid  and, 
despite  the  N  EC's  higher  resolution, 
there's  actually  little  to  choose  between 
them  in  terms  of  picture  quality.  The 
N  EC  is  supplied  with  just  an  SVGA  cable 
with  a  M  ac  adaptor.  Inputs  are  on 
the  right-hand  sidefor  RGB  in 
and  out,  S-Video,  RCA 
video  and  audio  in. 
There  is  a  serial 
port  for  PC 
control  of 
various 
functions 
such  as 
power  on 
and  off,  input 
signal  selection 
and  sound  muting,  but 
you  can't  control  your  PC 
mouse  pointer  from  the  remote. 

Like  the  Polaroid,  the  NEC  projector 
was  easy  to  set  up:  plug  in  the  RGB  cable, 
press  the  power  button  and  the  projector 
auto-senses  the  input  source  and  displays 
the  screen.  Basic  menu  mode,  which 
offers  a  subset  of  the  advanced  menu 
options  -  colour  and  brightness  control, 
colour  balance,  digital  keystone 
correction,  orientation  and  so  on  -  is  all 


you  are  ever  likely  to  need,  but  navigating 
the  nested  menu  arrangement  with  the 
nudge  buttons  on  the  remote  card  is 
tricky.  It's  not  helped  bytheless-than- 
sparkling  remote  operation. 

While  the  Polaroid,  with  two  receivers 
mounted  front  and 


rear,  happily 
picked  up 
signals  bounced 
off  the  screen  or  walls,  the  NEC  would 
accept  nothing  other  than  direct  line  of 
fire.  Unreliable  remote  operation  is 
exactly  the  kind  of  thing  that  can  turn  a 
well-planned  presentation  into  a  farce. 

Looks  aren't  everything.  The  Polaroid 
projector  offers  equal  image  quality  to 
the  NEC,  superior  functionality,  easier 
operation  and  a  smaller,  lighter  box  It  is 
also  a  lot  cheaper  -  no  contest. 

KEN  MCMAHON 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

NEC  MULTISYNC  VT540G 
PRICE  £3,760  (£3,200  exVAT) 

CONTACT  NEC  0645  40  40  20 

www.nec.co.uk 

PROS  Good  looks;  good  picture  quality 
CONS  No  remote  mouse;  fiddly  OSM ;  poor 
IR  reception 

OVERALL  Letdown  by  lack  of  connectivity 
optionsand  poorremotecontrol 

★★★★★ 

POLAROID  SVGA  238 
PRICE  £2,818.83  (£2,399  exVAT) 
CONTACT  IMC  01384  871  329 

www.imcnet.com 

PROS  Good  connectivity  range;  easy  setup; 

powerful  remote  functions 

CONS  Clunkydesign 

OVERALL  If  you  can  overlook  the  style 

shortcomings,  this  projector  has  it  all 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  lift 


M  SI  Socket  A  motherboard 

The  K7T  Pro  board  will  let  you  take  advantage  of  the  Duron's  low-cost  speed  and  power 


AM  D  has  managed  to  steal  the 
headlines  once  more  with  its 
new  value  processor,  the 
Duron,  and  there  is  certainly  no 
doubtingthat  it  isa  good  choice  if  you 
are  thinking  of  buying  a  new  PC.  But 
what  should  you  do  if  you  are  thinking  of 
building  a  budget  system  yourself  - 
should  you  go  for  Celeron  or  Duron? 

Typically,  the  main  problems  with 
AM  D's  processors  have  been 
twofold.  First,  there  have 
generally  been  less 
decent  AM  D- 
compatible 
motherboards 
about  than  Intel- 
compatible  boards, 
especially  at  launch 
time.  Second,  in  our 
experience,  Intel  kit  tends 
to  beslightly  easier  to  setup 
and  configure. 

H  aving  said  that,  in  the  past 
few  years,  things  havecertainly got 
better  for  AM  D,  with  Slot  A  boards 
becoming  a  lot  easier  to  install  and 
configure.  The  company's  decision  to 
switch  all  of  its  new  processors  to  Socket 
A,  though,  has  the  potential  to  throw  all 
theold  problems  up  again,  so  wedecided 
to  take  a  look  at  one  of  the  new  Socket  A 
boards,  M  Si's  K7TPro. 

Unsurprisingly,  it  usesVIA'sKT133 
chipset.  Although  AM  D's  750  chipset 
will  work,  AM  D  is  recommending  the  VIA 
KT133  for  its  new  Socket  A  Durons  and 
newAthlons(codenamed  Thunderbird). 
This  offers  support  for  most  of  the 
current  PC  standards:  AGP  4x,  PC  133 
and  PC100  SDRAM ,  ACPI,  and  AC97 
audio  support  are  integrated  into  the 
chipset.  Theonlymajorthingitdoesnot 
support  is  UltraDM  A100  -  for  thisyou'll 
need  a  board,  such  asAsus'  A7V-100, 
with  a  separate  controller  card  onboard. 
Nonetheless,  this  is  still  good  feature  set, 
although  there  are  new  chipsets  from 
AM  D  and  VIA  waiting  in  the  wings. 

The  board  itself  is  fairly  basic,  but  it 
will  provideyou  with  a  good  base.  It 
sports fivededicated  PCI  slots,  plus  an 
extra  one  that  it  shares  with  a 
Communication  N etwork  Riser  (CN  R) 
slot.  This  slot  is  for  a  new  generation  of 
cheap  modem,  audio  and  network  cards, 
but  in  the  two  months  since  we  first  saw  a 
board  with  this  connector  on  it,  we  have 
yet  to  see  a  single  card.  There  are  three 
memory  slots  available  together  with  two 


EIDE  channels.  Onboard  sound  is 
becoming  standard  for  most 
motherboards,  and  this  is  no  exception. 
Three  audio-in  connectors  are  located 
next  to  theexternal  ports  for  CD,  AUX 
and  M  odem.  There  are  only  two  fan 

connectors  on  the  board, 
which  isa  bit  of  a  shame 
as  we  are  used  to 
seeing  three.  There 
are  also  sets  of 
pinsformore 
USB  ports 
and  IrDA, 


should  you 
feel  the  need 
forthem.  We 
felt  that  the  layout 
was  sensible,  helping 
us  to  route  cables  tidily 
throughout  the  case. 

Setting  up  the  K7T  Pro  was  a  heck  of 
a  lot  easier  than  setting  up  theold  Slot  A 
Athlons.  Weused  a  700M  HzDuron 
in  this  review.  Admittedly,  we  needed  to 
update  theAward  BlOSto  cope  with  the 
new  processor,  and  we  needed  the  latest 
nVidia  beta  drivers  to  make  our  Gigabyte 
GeForce2  GTS  work,  butthisisparfor 
the  course  when  building  systems  based 
on  new  technology.  Once  we'd  donethis 
and  installed  the  VIA  4-in-l  drivers 
provided  on  the  setup  CD,  we  were  left 
with  a  reassuringly  stable  system. 

We  then  ran  a  few  standard 
benchmarks  on  it  and  can  report  that  the 
Duron  wipes thefloor  with  theCeleron 
in  both  price  and  performance.  Our 
700M  HzDuron,  GigabyteGA-GF2000, 
128MB  of  PC133  SDRAM  and  Quantum 
Fireball  hard  drive  produced  a  SYSmark 
2000  result  of  128,  a  3Dmark  2000  of 
5,464  and  a  Q uake III  scoreof  89.8 


frames  per  second  (fps)  at  our  standard 
resolution  of  1,024  x768  in  16bit  colour. 
Compare thisto  a  Celeron  700M  Hz, 
using  the  same  parts  and  an  Asus  CUSL2 
(an  815E  motherboard).  It  scored  a 
measly  117  in  SYSmark  2000, 4,025  in 
3D M  ark 2000  and  76.6fps  in  Quake  III. 
That  isa  pretty  comprehensive  thrashing 
in  our  book,  and  what  makes  it  even 
moreof  a  triumph  for  AM  D  isthefact 
that  the  Duron  is  much  cheaper.  A 
700M  H  z  D  uron  costs  £80  ex  VAT, 
compared  to  the  £150  ex  VAT  for  the 
Celeron  being  advertised  bydabs.com  as 
we  went  to  press. 

It  looks  as  though  the  difference  in 
the  two  chips'  architecture  has  a  large 
impact  on  performance.  The  Duron 
sports  128KB  of  Level  1  cache  and  64KB 
of  Level  2  cache  (that's  why  you'll  see 
thecompanytalking  about  192KB 
of  total  on-chip  cache).  Crucially, 

*  *  it  utilises  the  same  system  bus 
technology  as  its  bigger 
Athlon  brother,  producing 
a  front-side  bus  (FSB)  speed 
of  200M  H  z,  compared  to  the 
Celeron's  66M  H  z.  Admittedly,  the 
memory  isstill  only  running  at 
133M  Hz,  but  it  looks  like  it  has  removed 
a  bottleneck  to  speed  that  really  gives  the 
chip  a  boost. 

If  you  need  to  build  a  budget  system 
now,  then  there  is  no  reason  to  go  for  the 
Celeron  over  the  Duron:  AM  D's  processor 
is  simply  faster  and  cheaper.  This  M  SI 
board,  although  fairly  basic,  would  also 
bea  good  choice.  If  you  can  hold  on, 
though,  it  might  be  better  to  wait  and  see 
what  the  next  generation  of  chipsets  has 
in  store- themorechoiceyou  have  before 
taking  the  plunge,  the  better. 

JASON  JENKINS 

DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  MSI  K7T Pro  £99.88 
(£85  ex  VAT) 

Duron  700MHz£94  (£80  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Panrix0113  244 4958 

www.panrix.com 

PROS  Fairly easyto  configure;  fast;  low  cost 
CONS  Only  two  fan  connectors;  no 
UltraDM  A100  support;  may  be  better  to  hold 
off  for  new  chipset  releases 
OVERALLThe  D  uron  is  a  fantastic  choice  if 
you  are  looking  to  build  your  own  system  and 
this  low-cost  board  will  get  you  there 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


PERIPHERALS  > 


PERIPHERALS  >  > 


Xerox  DocuPrint  M750 

A  budget  printer  that  is  fairly  speedy,  but  does  not  deliver  the  best  quality 


Xerox  may  be  a  big  namein  the 
printing  and  copying  business, 
but  until  recently  it's  been 
conspicuous  by  its  low  profile  in  the 
home  inkjet  market.  Thecompanyhopes 
tochangeallthatwithan 
advertising  campaign 
fronted  bya  big  blue 
dog  and  some  well- 
specified,  reasonably 
priced  printers. 

Boasting  a 
maximum  resolution 
ofl, 200x1, 200dpi, 
theM  750  isthebaby 
ofthebunch  and 
comes  in  at  £99. 

The  unit  bears 
a  striking 
resemblance  to 
a  large  shoebox 
with  a  curvy  lid  and 
with  its  150-sheet  paper  feeder  it  eats 
up  a  fair  bit  of  desk  space. 

The  DocuPrint  employs  a  two- 
cartridge  print  system  (the  black 


cartridge  fits  to  thefirst  print  head,  while 
three  separate  coloured  ink  tanks  fit  to 
the  second) .  The  advantage  of  this  is 
that,  when  onecolour  runsout,  you 
don't  have  to  replaceall  three.  The 
DocuPrint  M  750  boasts  four  print 
speeds  (draft,  normal,  best 
and  express).  Xerox 
claims  the 
express 
mode 
delivers 
both 

speed  and 
quality 
without  the 
usual  trade¬ 
offs,  but  we're 
not  so  sure. 

Even  in  draft 
modetheclaim  of  10 
mono  pages  per  minute  was  closer  to  six, 
and  in  express  mode  we  only  managed 
5.2.  That  said,  theXeroxwas  still  quicker 
than  most  similarly  priced  inkjets  we've 
tested.  Unfortunately,  quality  was  just 


average  even  in  best  mode  and  when  we 
switched  to  inkjet  and  photo  paper,  text 
continued  to  bleed  and  images  were 
grainy  almost  regardless  of  resolution. 

When  it  came  to  photos,  results  on 
copier  paper  were  also  average  and  in 
places  washed  out,  while  when  we 
switched  to  photo  paper  our  test  images 
weredarkand  blurryin  places.  Theunit 
would  probably  suffice  for  printing  office 
documents  but,  ultimately  even  fora 
budget  printer,  we  expected  a  little  more. 

RICHARD  MCPARTLAND 


DETAILS 

★★★ 

PRICE  £99  (£81.68  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Xerox 0800  632  642 

www.xerox.co.uk 

PROS  Keenly  priced;  150-sheet  paper  feeder 
CONS  Average  image  quality;  unacceptable 
text  quality  in  normal  and  express  modes 
OVERALL  A  reasonable  performer;  it  may  be 
speedy  but  text  performance  suffers 


NEC  MultiSync  FP1370 

An  excellent  monitor  that  could  pose  a  threat  to  Sony  and  M  itsubishi,  except  for  a  contrast  issue 


With  the  CRT  monitor  market 
pretty  much  dictated  by  the 
quality  of  theflat-screen 
tubes  being  churned  out  by  M  itsubishi 
and  Sony,  it's  refreshing  to  get  hold  of  a 
displaythat  bucks  thetrend.  The  FP1370 
is  fitted  with  NEC's  own  flat-screen  tube, 
with  a  healthynominal  diagonal  of  22in. 
As  with  M  itsubishi's  tubes,  however,  the 
22in  figure  is  a  little 
misleading,  since  the 
viewablediagonal  is 
20in:  identical  to  most 
21in  units. 

Our  first  impression 
after  hefting  it  onto  the 
desk  -  it  weighs  32kg- 
wasthat,  for  a  22in  flat- 
screen  monitor,  it's 
amazinglyshallow.  With 
a  depth  of  just  465mm, 
it's  actually  10mm  or  so 
shorter  than  Taxan's  new 
19in  flat  screen  (reviewed 
in  our  September  issue). 

Styling  is  great,  too -the 


standby/ power  on  indicator  is  integrated 
into  the  NEC  logo  on  the  fascia,  so  it 
glows  rather  stylishly  when  the  unit  is 
switched  on. 

Round  thebackyou'll find  both 
D-SUB  and  BNC  connectors,  with  a 
dedicated  front-panel  button  to  switch 
between  them.  There's  also  a  dedicated 
front-panel  exit  button.  The  OSD  itself  is 
comprehensive,  with  sixvarietiesof 
convergence 
control  as  well  as 
theGlobalSync 
adjustments, 
otherwise  known 
as  corner  purity. 
When  it 

comes  to  image 
quality,  the 
FP1370  delivers 
thegoodson 
most  fronts, 
displaying 

excellent  geometry  with 
good  colour  registration, 
power  regulation  and  corner- 


to-corner  sharpness  and  focus.  But 
there's  one  big  Achilles'  heel:  contrast. 
The  screen  itself  is  far  greyer  than  we've 
become  used  to  and  gives  the  feeling  that 
you're  looking  at  the  display  through  a 
net  curtain.  It  renders  what  would  bean 
excellent  monitor  rather  ordinary. 

Unless  NEC  manages  to  sort  out  the 
contrast  problems,  you'd  be  much  better 
off  going  with  a  21/22in  displayfitted 
with  a  tubefrom  oneofthebigtwo. 

DAVID  FEARON 


DETAILS 

★★★ 

PRICE  £888  (£756  exVAT) 

CONTACT  NEC  0645  404  020 

www.nec.com 

PROS  Amazingly  short  tube;  good  looks;  a 
plethora  of  image  adjustments 
CONS  Expensive;  irritatingly  poor  contrast 
rules  it  out  as  a  true  contender 
OVERALL  A  great  monitor  that's 
unfortunately  marred  by  the  contrast  problem 


|T«1  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


PERIPHERALS  >  > 


Seagate  Cheetah  X15 

— -  If  you  need  the  speed,  this  18GB  drive  is  fast  and  efficient  and  will  leave  the  competition  standing 


Hard  drive  manufacturers  like 
nothing  more  than  a  gameof 
'passtheinnovation'.  Forthe 
latest  round  it's  back  to  Seagate  with  its 
18GB  Cheetah  X15  enterprise  drive. 

Following  the  standard  product¬ 
naming  strategy,  the  Cheetah  X15  is  a 
top-of-the-rangeSCSI  drive  that  has 
been  designed  specifically  for  I/O 
intensive  tasks.  In  order  to  get  a  faster 
drive,  Seagate  looked  at  the  major 
limiting  factor:  spindlespeed. 

T  h  e  f  a  ster  t  h  e  d  ri  ve  p  I  a  tters  ca  n  sp  i  n , 
the  quicker  the  data  falls  under  the  drive 
heads.  This  has  two  effects:  first  the 
heads  find  the  correct  area  in  a  shorter 
timespan;  and  second,  data  can  be 
read  or  written  faster. 

Seagate  -  who  introduced  the 
first  10,000rpm  drives  -  has 
upped  the  spindle  speed  by 
50  per  cent  to 
15,000rpm.  This  has 
reduced  the  average 
seek  time  from 
5.2msin  the 
10K  drive  to 
3.9ms  in  the 
X15.  This 
sounds  easy 
enough,  but  it  is 
not  just  a  matter  of 
taking  an  existing  drive, 
pulling  out  the  motor  and  sticking  a 
more  powerful  one  in.  For  one  thing,  all 
of  thedrive electronics  need  to  be 
upgraded  and  certified  to  work  at  the 
increased  speed.  This  is  actually  the  easy 
part. 

The  hard  part  comes  from  making 
sure  that  the  faster  model  doesn't  use 
more  power.  Simple  physics  dictates  that 
increased  motor  speed  requires  more 
power.  More  power  leads  to  extra 
friction  and  generates  more  heat.  With 
OEMs  (original  equipment 
manufacturers)  already  taking  into 
account  the  power  and  heat 
requirements  of  the  10K  drives,  Seagate 
cannot  afford  to  make  an  incompatible 
drive.  When  Seagatefirst  launched  the 
10K  drives,  for  example,  they  were  found 
to  run  too  hot  and  caused  endless 
problems  when  installed  in  machines. 

Determined  not  to  fall  into  this  trap 
again,  theX15  was  carefully  designed 
to  have  exactly  the  same  power,  heat, 
and  sound  profile  as  the  existing  10K 
drives.  This  required  development  of  the 
RACE  (Reliability  with  Advanced  Control 


and  Efficiency)  motor  used  to  drive 
the  spindle.  The  upgrades  included  a 
better  magnetic  seal  and  a  high- 
efficiency  stator.  The  stator  is  the 
stationary  part  of  the  motor  that 
converts  the  supplied  power  into  torque 
to  rotate  the  motor  at  the  rated  rpm. 

A  higher  speed  requires  more  power 
and  has  greater  electromagnetic  (EM ) 
losses.  Through  the  new  stator,  it  is 
possibleto  allow  the  motor  to  spin  50 
per  cent  faster  without  requiring  any 
additional  powerorcooling 


requirements.  On  top  of 
this,  a  new  magnetic  seal  protects  both 
thedisc  surfaceand  theGM  R  (Giant 
M  agneto  Resistive)  heads  from  static 
caused  bythespinningofthediscs. 

In  a  standard  system,  the  centrifugal 
forces  on  the  magnetic  fluid  inside  the 
seal  increase  with  rpm.  Beyond  a  certain 
critical  rpm,  the  centrifugal  forces  exceed 
the  magnetic  forces  holding  thefluid  in 
the  seal,  rendering  it  useless.  Seagate  has 
designed  a  new  seal  that  eliminates  the 
centrifugal  force  component  on  the 
fluid,  making  it  almost  completely  rpm- 
independent. 

The  remaining  limiting  factor  was 
physical  size  of  the  disks  themselves, 
which  Seagate  has  also  reduced.  This 
affords  better  control  of  the  spinning 
disksand  reduces  the  forces  applied  to 
the  platters.  The  reduced  platter  size, 
however,  requires  installation  of  more 
platters  to  get  the  18GB  capacity.  The 
X15  hasfivedisksand  10  GM  R  heads 
installed.  Unfortunately  this  takes  up 


all  of  the  available  space  inside  a  lin 
drive  case,  so  we  won't  see  higher 
capacities  for  this  model  until  areal 
densities  can  be  pushed  up. 

Thefinal  stage  was  to  upgradesome 
of  the  basic  points  of  thedrive,  with 
Seagate  installing  an  Ultral60  interface - 
200M  bytes/ sec  Fibre  Channel  is  also 
available-  and  upgrading  the  cache.  The 
10K  modelsonlyhad  2M  B  onboard,  but 
theX15  hasa  minimum  of  4M  B,  and  at 
thetop  end  16M  B. 

No  real  innovations  were  made  to 
the  amount  of  shock  that  the  d rive  can 
take.  In  fact,  theX15  has  the 
same  rating  -  15Gs 
operating  and  250Gs  non- 
operating- as  the  18GB 
Cheetah  10K. 

We  tested  an  Ultral60 
SCSI  drive  with  16M  B  of 
cache.  Our  tests  comprised 
a  random  read/ write  test  using 
Intel's  lometer  1998.10.08, 
and  timing  a  1G  B  file  copy 
The  results  were  extremely 
impressive,  lometer  returned  a 
1.52M  bytes/ sec  result,  compared 
with  the  1.45M  bytes/  sec  of  the 
18GB  Cheetah  10K.  Thefilecopy 
managed  to  complete  in  41  seconds 
against  the48. 5  seconds  of  the 
old  Cheetah. 

If  you  havean  application,  such  as 
video  editing,  where  performance  is 
crucial,  then  this  is  thefastest  drive  that 
you  can  get  your  hands  on.  Flowever,  at 
£468.75  inc  VAT,  it's  not  cheap  and 
you're  limited  to  buying  18GB  drives.  If 
it's  capacity  that  you're  after,  you'll  have 
to  buyoneoftheolder generation  of 
drives  instead. 

DAVID  LUDLOW 

DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £468.75  (£398.93  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Seagate0800  783  5177 

www.seagate.com 

PROS  Thefastest  drive  on  the  market;  same 
power/ heat  profile  as  previous  model 
CONS  Expensive;  recommended  only  for 
highly  I/O  intensive  tasks;  limited  to  18GB 
capacity 

OVERALL  It's  certainly  fast  and  capable,  but 
the  price  does  mean  that  you'll  have  to 
carefully  consider  if  the  extra  performance  is 
worth  the  premium 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


PERIPHERALS  >  > 


Kyocera  laser  printer 

The  fully  featured  FS-IOOO  proves  you  don't  have  to  sacrifice  performance  to  be  eco-friendly 


Less  contoured  than  earlier 

Porsche-designed  printers  from 
eco-friendly  Kyocera,  theFS-1000 
is  nonetheless  small  and  attractive  and 
should  have  no  difficultyfitting  onto  a 
small  desk  or  shelf.  You'd  be 
recommended  to  give  it  a  bit  of 
breathing  space,  though,  so  you  can 
make  good  use  of  the  impressive  array  of 
doors  and  openings.  Around  thefront 
you  can  pull  out  the  paper  tray,  capable 
of  holding  up  to  250  sheets  of  standard 
80gsm  photocopy  paper,  above  which  is 
theM  P  (multi-purpose)  feeder  that  will 
handle  anything  up  to  163gsm.  At  the 
back,  meanwhile,  there's  a  fold-out 
holder  for  face-up  output  that  will  stack 
in  reverse  order  to  those  pages  you  let  the 
FS-1000  deposit  in  the  standard  tray  on 
top  oftheunit'smain  bodyand  offera 
straight  paper  path  for  0  FI  P 
transparencies  and  label  sheets. 

Under  the  hood  there's  an  impressive 
set  of  electronics.  The  brain  is  a  75M  FI  z 
PowerPC  processor,  and  it  benefits  from 
a  standard  install  of  4M  B  of  RAM ,  which 
can  be  expanded  to  a  maximum  of 
132M  B.  Beware,  though,  for  this  is 
pricey,  with  a  64M  B  DIM  M  upgrade 
setting  you  back  as  much  as  the  printer 
itself.  Combined,  though,  the  processor 
and  standard  allocation  of  memory 
helped  it  pump  out  a  steady  10  text 
pages  a  minute  with  a  standard  five  per 
cent  coverage  in  our  tests,  and  the  results 
were  good  -  at  the  standard  600dpi 
setting  characters  were  crisp  and  dark. 
Speed  demonscan  drop  thisto  300dpi, 
or  you  can  instead  opt  for  the  KIR2 
(Kyocera  Image  Refinement  2)  setting 
and  up  theanteto  1,200dpi.  Splashing 
outonthe8MB  FS-1000  ^ 

doesn't  up  the 
quoted  print 
speed, 
though, 


T he  multi-purpose  feeder  is 
truly  all-purpose 


so  it's  the  engine  itself  rather  than  the 
buffer  that  is  setting  the  lOppm  limit. 

Print  quality  is  difficult  to  fault. 

I  mages  were  well  rendered  and  oursetof 
standard  PowerPoint  test  slides,  printed 
on  generic  paper,  had  even  toner 
distribution,  and  text-based  characters 
as  small  as2pt  were  easy  to  read.  Our 
50-page  Acrobat  test  document  was 
cleanly  produced  and  spot 
colours  in  the  clip¬ 
art  it  includes 
were  translated 
into  well- 
differentiated 
greyscale 
equivalents. 

Throughout  our  tests 
theFS-1000  was 
quiet  in  use,  making 
less  noise  than  the  fan 
in  our  test  PC. 

It  hasfivein-built 
printer  emulations, 
including  Epson  LQ-850  and 
PCL6,  and  optional  support 
for  PostScript  Level  2  through 
an  emulation  ROM  .  Interfaces 
for  serial  connection  and,  at 
£229,  a  device  to  hook  the  printer 
to  a  10/ 100BaseTX  Ethernet  network 
without  an  external  print  server  box,  are 
also  available.  The  really  clever  thing, 
though,  especially  if  you  takethe 
network  option,  is  Kyocera's  Remote 
Operation  Panel  (ROP).  This  effectively 
makes  up  for  the  lack  of  a  screen  on  the 
unit  itself,  letting  you  monitor  every 
aspect  of  its  operation.  Open  up  one  of 
the  external  doors  and  the  spinning 
image  on  your  screen  will  open  its  door 
to  match.  Run  low  on  toner  and  it'll 
warn  you  so  you  don't  end  up 

walking  across  the  room 
to  collect  your  print 
job  only  to  find  a 
pile  of  empty  pages. 
A  directory  tree 
interface  lets  you 
navigate  the  various 
settings  and  options, 
specifying  print 
resolutions  and  ecology 
settings.  Our  only  complaint 
was  the  speed  at  which  it 
worked.  It's  all  fine  and  well 
having  a  pretty  image  spinning  on 
the  interface  but  it  madethe  whole 
thing  less  responsive.  We  soon  found 
ourselves  becoming  irritated,  too,  at 


the  way  in  which  it  would  slowlyfade 
settings  and  stats  onto  the  panel  as  it 
probed  them  rather  than  just  displaying 
them  right  away.  That  said,  though, 
these  are  minor  points  and  you  are  in  no 
way  obliged  to  use  the  ROP  which  is,  at 
theend  of  the  day,  just  an  added  bonus. 

TheFS-1000  is  not  expensive  to  run. 

The  £54  toner 
cartridge  has  a 


quoted  life  of 

6,000  pages  if  you  follow  the 
five  per  cent  coverage  rule,  which 
those  with  calculators  will  no  doubt 
a  I  read  y  h  a  ve  wo  rked  o  u  t  averages  at  0 . 9 
pence  per  page,  which  Kyocera  claims 
makes  it  a  penny  a  pagecheaperto  run 
than  FI  P's  LaserJet  1100.  The  all-in-one 
process  unit,  which  comprises  the  drum 
and  developer,  carries  a  100,000-page, 
three-year  warranty  so  if  guaranteed 
uptime  is  important  to  you  this  may  be 
an  attractive  choice. 

It's  also  a  good  one  for  the  greens - 
Kyocera's  Ecosys  regime  cuts  down  on 
wastage  with  a  fully  re-usable  drum  that 
just  needstopping  up  with  toner  and  a 
bit  of  regular  maintenance  when  it's 
returned  to  the  factory. 

NIK  RAWLINSON 


DETAILS 


★★★★★ 

PRICE  £329  (£280  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Kyocera 0118 931  1500 

www.kyocera.co.uk 

PROS  Compact;  quiet;  fast;  great  output;  will 
appeal  to  the  green  friendly 
CONS  Remote  operation  panel  is  somewhat 
ponderous 

OVERALL  Cheap  to  run,  attractive- what 
more  could  you  want? 


)[|]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


SOFTWARE  >  > 


Macromedia  Flash  5 

— -  Flash  is  now  ubiquitous:  nearly  all  new  browsers  can  read  it,  so  you  can't  afford  to  be  without  it 


Over  92  per  cent  of  the  Internet 
population -that's  248 
million  people-  can  now  view 
Flash  content  without  having  to  install 
anymoreplug-ins.  Bundled  with  all  the 
new  browsers  and  with  Windows,  the 
format  is  now  almost  as  widely  accepted 
asjpegsorgifs. 

Flash  has  always  supported 
importing  Illustrator  files,  but  in  this 
release  its  handling  of  Freehand  output 
has  been  improved,  which  isn't 
surprising,  as  they  sharea  common 
owner.  The  pages  of  a  Freehand 
document  can  be  set  to  import  as  scenes 
or  keyframes,  and  layers  can  beflattened 
out  or,  like  the  pages,  distributed  across 
the  timeline  as  keyframes. 

The  import  dialog  also  gives  the 
option  for  importing  only  a  select 
number  of  pages  of  the  original  Freehand 
document,  but  we  would  have  liked  to 
have  had  the  opportunity  to  open,  or  at 
least  preview,  the  source  file  at  this  point 
so  that  we  would  not  be  making  such 
decisions  'blind'.  That  said,  everything 
else  is  handled  well.  Layers  in  the 
Freehand  original  will  import  with  the 
same  layer-colour  indicators.  N  ames  and 
even  locking  status  are  maintained,  while 
scenesaredistributed  onto  separate 
timeline  entries  and  any  related  objects 
saved  to  the  library  for  future  use. 

Reorganising  layers  is  a  simple  matter 
of  mouse-grabbing  them  and  dragging 
them  up  or  down  the  stacked  pile, 
depending  on  whether  you  want  their 
contents  to  appear  in  front  of  or  behind 


un-mi  rmf  j  J  j  JipB  in  I 
J  H I  HI  ■  I  !■  CrfiM  +  JJ I 


As 


Layer-based  work  can  be  a  bit  tough  for  the  novice,  butActionScript 
will  let  you  get  right  into  the  code  without  having  to  write  any 


other  objects  in  the  animation.  Flash  has 
not  adopted  an  object-based  approach 
like  that  found  in  LiveMotionfrom 
Adobe,  which  may  make  it  less  attractive 
to  thefirst-timeuser,  for  while  Flash  is 
undoubtedly  more  powerful  and 
endowed  with  a  far  more  impressive  set 
of  functions,  the  layer-based  approach 
may  be  confusing  to  the  novice. 

This  is  a  shame,  because  it  means 
that  M  acromedia  is  unableto  employ 
the  fully  expandable-collapsible  timeline 
enjoyed  byLiveM  otion  where  element 
attributes  can  be  fully  tweaked  in  situ. 
Instead,  M  acromedia  has  had  to  stick 
with  a  palette-based  approach  and  you'll 
sometimes  find  yourself  hunting  around 
the  screen  for  a  particular  input  box. 

M  acromedia  is  using  this  release  to 
trumpet  the  arrival  of  its  standardised 
user  interface,  so  you  can  see  why  it  may 


be  reluctant  to  introduce  a  shape- 
shifting  timeline,  but  a  best-of-both- 
worlds  approach  would  have  been  nice, 
leaving  the  palettes  there  for  those  who 
already  have  a  firm  grasp  of  the  package 
and  a  dropdown  timelinefor  everyone 
else.  Palettes  can  be  re-grouped  into 
whatever  order  you  feel  is  most  logical. 

We  were  also  disappointed  that  there 
is  no  history  palette  in  Flash  5.  This  has 
been  one  of  the  must-have  features  in 
version  three  of  both  Dreamweaver  and 
Fireworks- the  ability  to  roll  back  past 
project  saves  or  even  to  write  all  past 
actions  to  disk  is  a  real  time  saver. 

Fortunately,  Flash  has  an  extensive 
Undo  cache,  so  there's  a  good  chance 
you'll  beableto 
repair  any 
damage  you 
might  cause,  but 
with  Macromedia 
rolling  out  a 
unified  product 
Ul  over  the  next 
sixmonths-  and 
we're  wondering 
if  this  hints  at 
forthcoming  new 
releases  of  other 
Macromedia 
packages  -  it 
would  have  been 
nice  to  have  seen 
it  here,  too. 

Thethinking 
behind  the 
common  Ul  isa 
sensible  one,  with 

the  company  claiming  that  most  of  its 
customers  use  at  least  two  of  its 
products.  If you'renot oneofthem, 
though,  you'll  probably welcomethe 
option  to  customise  the  keyboard 
shortcuts  to  match  your  other  web¬ 
publishing  installations. 

There's  a  new  Bezier  pen  tool  that 
does  just  what  you'd  expect  of  such  a 
device,  but  far  more  important  is  what 
M  acromedia  is  calling  the  'M  ovie 
Explorer'.  Targeted  at  those  developing 
in  a  corporate  multi-user  environment, 
where  the  working  model  often  sees 
more  than  one  person  assigned  to  a 
particular  animation,  this  makes  it  easy 
to  trawl  through  the  whole  movie  and 
search  out  specific  elements. 

Searching  is  a  simple  matter  of 
entering  a  keyword  that  could  be 
anything  from  the  name  of  an  object  to  a 


srtiirT7!^iT,i, 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


string  of  text.  In  the  case  of  the  latter,  the 
text  can  then  be  changed  in  the  results 
window  without  venturing  into  the  movie 
itself  and  theanimation  content  will 
dynamically  update.  This  means  that  the 
found  result  no  longer  exists,  so  the 
Explorer  palette  changes  to  reflect  this. 

Keeping  your  audio  files  small  is  all 
well  and  good,  but  if  they  suffer  as  a 
result,  yourwholemoviewill  comeacross 
as  less  professional.  So  Flash  gives  you 
the  option  of  individually  setting  the 
compression  level  of  any  sounds  you  use. 
This  setting  will  then  override  any  global 
setting  applied  to  the  movie  as  a  whole. 

Putting  a  sound  into  your  movie  is 
impressively  easy-  simply  drag  it  onto  the 
stage  and  it  will  be  dropped  onto  the 
current  layer.  We  would  have  liked  it  if 
Flash  had  been  automatically  set  to 
initiate  a  new  layer  for  the  waveform  as 
it's  unlikely  you'd  want  to  lay  it  down  on 
the  same  level  as  an  on-screen  animation, 
buttheabilityto  simplydragand  drop 
sounds  onto  the  stage  is  a  real  time  saver 
and  more  than  makes  up  for  it. 

Flash  includesa  simpleset  of  non¬ 
destructive  audio-editing  tools  that  let 
you  loop  the  waveform  without  having  to 
load  more  than  one  instance.  If  you 
spend  a  coupleof  minutes  fiddling,  you 
can  get  your  sounds  to  pan  from  one 
side  to  the  other  and  effectively  follow 
the  on-screen  action,  giving  your  movie 
greater  depth  and  a  professional  finish. 

This  isn't  as  tricky  as  it  sounds,  as  it's 
just  a  matter  of  reducing  the  volume  level 
on  onechannel  while  increasing  that  of 
the  other.  Doing  this  involves  simply 
dragging  a  linear  representation  of  the 
volume  up  and  down  the  screen  and 
adjusting  each  end  higher  or  lower  to 
indicateamplification  or  tapering  off. 

If  there's  one  area  in  which  Flash 
developers  have  been  restricted  in  the 
past,  it's  the  programming  side  of  things. 
The  interface  makes  it  easy  to  drag  and 
drop  elements  and  animate  them  by 
tweening  across  the  timeline,  but  getting 
under  the  program's  skin,  so  to  speak, 
and  accessing  its  inner  workings  has 
traditionally  been  something  of  a  task. 

All  of  that  has  changed  with  the 
introduction  of  ActionScript.  It's 
designed  to  be  easy  to  learn,  sharing  a 
common  structure  and  syntax  with 
JavaScript,  but  if  programming  doesn't 
float  your  boat  you  can  resort  to  what 
we  all  know  best  -  drag  and  drop. 

The  ActionScript  interface  can  beset 
to  consist  of  two  windows,  one  with  all 
the  available  commands  and  the  other, 
your  script.  Dragging  commands  from 
the  left  window  to  the  right  adds  them  to 
your  program  and  opens  up  an  attribute 
dialog  at  the  bottom  of  the  palette. 


Completingthecodelineisthen  a  matter 
of  filling  in  the  blanks,  so  programming 
becomes  more  a  case  of  answering 
questions  than  typing  code. 

Wewerea  little  disappointed  that 
when  specifying  U  RLs  or  files  that  should 
beincluded  in  linesof  code,  there  was  no 
facilityto  browseforthem.  Instead  you 
had  to  relyon  your  memory,  orfind 
them  in  Windows  Explorer  or  IE.  Like  the 
lack  of  a  preview  button  in  the  Freehand 
import  dialog,  thisseemsto  bea  small 
oversight  on  M  acromedia's  part  that 
could  easily  have  been  incorporated  and 
enhanced  the  user  experience  greatly. 

A  neat  new  feature  is  web  native 
printing.  Designers  can  now  produce 
banners  that,  when  embedded  into  a 
page  and  clicked  on  by  the  user,  will  print 
a  hard  copyof  whatever theychoose. 
Imagine,  for  example,  a  banner  advert 
for  PCI/1/  that  prints  out  a  sample  page 
when  clicked.  If  widely  adopted,  this 
could  bea  powerful  advertising  tool. 

The  new  Flash  plug-in,  which  is  a 
necessary  download  for  anyone  who 
wants  to  view  Flash  5  files,  also  caters  for 
XM  L  Socket  Connection,  whereby  a  link 
to  the  server  will  be  maintained  so  that 
XM  L  data  can  be  passed  back  and  forth 
between  the  server  and  the  player  for 
constantly  updated  content. 

An  effective  implementation  of  this 
technology  could  see  Flash  being  used  to 
gather  orders  and  credit  card  numbers, 
validate  them  while  the  user  stays  online 
and  produce  a  receipt  without  needing 
to  refresh  the  browser  window  content, 
giving  the  developer  greater  control  over 
the  event  from  beginning  to  end,  and 
greater  security  for  the  user  who  won't  be 


peppering  their  cache  with  sensitive  data. 

While  LiveM  otion  may  bean  easier 
first  step  for  the  novice,  there  is  no 
denying  that  the  genuine  article  is  a  more 
powerful  option.  Its  use  of  true  vector- 
based  imaging  produces  compact 
output  that  downloads  quickly  and  new 
features  -  such  as  shared  asset  libraries, 
the  movie  explorer  and  drag-and-drop 
ActionScript  programming  -  make  this 
latest  version  quick  and  easy  to  use. 

There  are  things  missing  that  we 
would  have  liked  to  have  seen  -  primarily 
a  fully-featured  history  palette  and 
browse  and  preview  buttons,  but  these 
omissions  are  soon  forgotten  when  the 
package  is  viewed  as  a  whole. 

NIK  RAWLINSON 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  Full  version  £259  (£220.43 
VAT);  upgradefrom  earlier  version  £99 
(£84.26  exVAT);  Flash  5/Freehand  9  Studio 
full  version  £399  (£339.57  exVAT);  upgradeto 
studio  £179  (£152.34  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Computers  Unlimited 
020  8358  5857 
www.macromedia.com/uk 
SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  133MHz 
Pentium;  Windows  9x/NT4/2000;  32M  B  of 
RAM ;  40M  B  of  hard  disk  space;  256-colour 
monitorcapableof 800x600; CD-ROM  drive 
PROS  Well  established;  extensive  features, 
cuts  d  evel  o  p  m  ent  ti  m  e  o  ver  p  revi  o  u  s  versi  o  n  s 
CONS  A  couple  of  omissions  as  mentioned 
above,  but  nothing  drastic 
OVERALL  If  you  wantto  do  web  animation 
properly,  this  is  how 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


SOFTWARE  > 


SOFTWARE  >  > 


M  icrosoft  Visio  2000 

A  general-purpose  diagramming  tool  that  demonstrates  great  versatility  and  value  for  money 


C  hoose  your  dra  wing:  V isio  morphs  accordingly  as  you  pick  different  types 


Visio  is  in  essence  a  diagramming 
tool  based  on  shapes  and 
connections.  The  product  has 
evolved  to  include  areas  such  as  design, 
documentation  and  software  modelling. 
Even  though  it  was  only  recently  acquired 
by  M  icrosoft,  Visio  has  for  a  long  time 
been  deeply  integrated  into  Windows. 
Visual  Basic  for  Applications  is  built  in, 
and  Visio  exposes  a  complete  object 
model  so  that  other  applications  can 
control  its  features  programmatically. 

Developers  can  use  Visio  as  a  front- 
end  for  custom  applications.  For 
example,  an  office  designer  might  use  it 
to  plan  where  staff  will  sit,  calculate  the 
costand  initiate  an  order  for  furniture. 

M  icrosoft  is  using  a  Visio  application  as 
a  core  part  of  its  forthcoming  BizTalk 
server,  for  managing  business  processes, 
exploiting  its  ability  to  provide  drag-and- 
drop  design  together  with  code 
generation  and  programmatic  control  of 
other  application  components. 

A  Visio  shape  is  a  sophisticated 
drawing  object,  with  a  huge  range  of 
formatting  options  and  theabilityto  be 
merged  and  grouped.  Shapes  also  support 
data  and  events.  In  Visio's  office  layout 
shapes,  for  instance,  each  item  has 
custom  properties  to  supply  an  inventory 
number  and  an  owner.  Events  fire  when 
shapes  are  added  to  a  diagram,  clicked  or 
modified.  Shapes  can  also  be  categorised 
into  layers,  so  you  can  show  or  hide 
selected  objects.  Visio  connectors  are 
equally  sophisticated.  You  can  specify 
connection  points  and  routing  behaviour, 
so  that  connectors  reposition  themselves 
intelligently  as  a  diagram  grows. 

For  general-purpose  diagramming, 
such  as  creating  flow  charts,  organisation 
charts,  orbuildingyourown  charts  from 
scratch,  the  standard  edition  is  a  good 
choice.  The  product  has  been  extended, 
with  numerous  specialist  macros  and 
stencils,  Visio's  term  for  custom  shapes. 
TheTechnical  edition  has  stencils  for 
such  things  as  electrical,  civil  and 
mechanical  engineering  and  architecture. 

The  Professional  edition  targets  the 
IT  industry,  with  basic  network  design 
and  diagramming  and  documentation 
for  database,  software  and  Internet 
development.  The  Enterprise  edition  is 
also  IT-oriented,  but  with  more  complete 
stencils  and  tools.  It  is  the  most  expensive, 
but  does  not  include  all  thefeatures  in 
Technical,  so  if  you  model  databases  and 
design  electrical  circuits,  you'll  need  both. 


Visio  Enterprise  can  automatically 
discover  a  network  and  diagram  it.  There 
is  also  full  support  for  unified  modelling 
language  (U  M  L) .  It  is  a  complete  model¬ 
ling  environment,  with  its  own  navigator 
and  theabilityto  check  a  model's  integrity. 

You  can  generate  code  for  C++,  Java 
or  Visual  Basic  and  reverse  engineer 
existing  code  in  Visual  Studio  projects.  In 
the  same  way,  the  database  modeller  lets 
you  generate  DDL  (Database  Definition 
Language)  scripts,  so  you  can  first  model 
and  then  create  a  database.  You  can  also 
reverse  engineer  existing  databases.  With 
such  strong  development  tools,  it  would 
make  sense  for  M  icrosoft  to  incorporate 
someform  of  Visio  into  Visual  Studio, 
rather  than  the  current  Visual  M  odeller, 
which  is  based  on  a  Rational  product. 

A  couple  of  years  ago  Visio  absorbed 
a  product  called  InfoM  odeler,  with  its 
intuitive  object-modelling  technique 
ORM  (Object  Role  Modelling),  which 
uses  natural  language  facts  to  capture 
business  rules.  ORM  lives  on  in  Visio 
2000,  with  its  own  shapes  and  tools. 

Seasoned  Visio  users  will  not  find  this 
a  radical  upgrade.  The  most  noticeable 
change  is  in  the  interface,  which  has  new 
docked  windows,  a  diagram  explorer, 
and  pagetabsfor  navigating  complex 
documents.  You  can  now  save  diagrams 
asHTM  Land  embed  hyperlinks  into 
shapes.  There  is  also  improved  network 
discovery  with  auto-layout  and  support 
for  importing  structures  from  Active 


Directory,  NDS (Novell  Directory 
Services)  and  LDAP  services.  M  any  other 
features  have  enhancements  of  detail, 
listed  on  M  icrosoft's  Visio  website. 

Anyevaluation  of  Visio  depends 
largely  on  what  you  want  it  for.  Visio 
scores  highlyon  versatility,  but  maytake 
second  placeto  more  specialist  toolsin 
any  particular  niche.  For  general-purpose 
business  diagramming,  it  is  superb.  It  is 
a  I  so  g  rea  t  va  I  u  e  f  o  r  so  f  t w  a  re  d  evel  o  p  er s, 
with  tools  for  everything  from  designing 
an  interfaceto  advanced  modelling. 

TIM  ANDERSON 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  Standard  £179 
(£153  exVAT);  Professional  or  Technical  £355 
(£303  exVAT);  Enterprise £889  (£760  exVAT) 
CONTACT  M  icrosoft  0345  002  000 
www.microsoft.com 
SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Windows 
95/98/NT/2000,  80M  B  of  RAM ,  130M  B  of 
disk  space,  CD-ROM  drive 
PROS  Highly  versatile  and  customisable; 
strong  VBA  and  COM  automation  support; 
completeUML  diagramming 
CONS  Sluggish  screen  refresh  on  complex 
diagrams;  too  few  example  diagrams; 
Enterprise  edition  excludesTechnical  features 
OVERALL  Slick  implementation,  versatile 
features  and  a  huge  range  of  stencils  and  tools 
make  Visio  hard  to  resist 


Personal  Computer  World 


•  October  2000 


Autoroute  G  B  2001 

A  great  route-planning  package  that  only  falls  foul  of  the  competition  in  that  you  have  to  pay  for  it 


Autoroute  has  changed  a  lot  over 
the  past  decade.  0  nee  it  was  an 
independent  DOS-based  route- 
calculation  package,  but  it  has  been  in 
the  M  icrosoft  fold  for  manyyears  now 
and  offers  not  only  route  calculation,  but 
also  extensive  information  about  the 
areas  through  which  any  route  passes. 

This  version  may  be  called  Autoroute 
GB,  but  it  also  includes  mapsforthe 
whole  of  Europe  and  even  door-to-door 
planning  from  anywhere  in  the  UK  to 
major  parts  of  Germany  and  France. 

With  so  many  foreign  place  names 
involved,  the  new  Smart  Spelling  feature 
will  hunt  down  wordsyou  enter 
phonetically.  In  practice  this  worked 
fairly  well.  Basyldun,  Rumfud  and 
Covuntree found  Basildon,  Romford  and 
Coventry  in  the  UK,  and  looking  overseas 
we  correctly  hit  upon  Aix-en-Provence 
and  M  almo  after  searching  for  Aches  on 
Provanceand  M  arlmow  respectively. 

The  maps  are  comprehensive  and  up 
to  date,  even  including  the  brand  new 
tunnel/bridge  route  opened  up  between 
M  almo  and  Copenhagen  just  a  week 
before  the  review  copy  arrived  in  PCI/I/ 's 
office.  There's  also  an  online  phrase 
book,  which  may  be  of  less  use  to  desk¬ 
bound  users  than  to  those  who  will  be 
able  to  take  the  package  with  them. 

It  includes  a  wide  range  of  interest 
points,  including  over  49,000 
restaurants  and  37,000  petrol  stations 
and,  as  you  might  expect,  allows  you  to 
enter  your  average  driving  speeds  so  that 
it  can  accurately  calculate  how  long  it 
will  take  you  to  get  from  point  A  to  point 
D,  taking  in  points  B  and  C  along  the 
way.  It  does  not,  however,  take  into 
account  differing  speed  limits  on  multi¬ 
nation  routes.  In  the  UK,  for  example, 
you  might  top  out  at  70mph,  while  in 
Germany  there's  a  chance  you  might 
want  to  go  faster. 

M  apscan  bedownloaded  into  PDAs 
running  WindowsCE  2.0  orabove  using 
Pocket  Streets  for  viewing  on  the  move 
and  if  you  want  to  print  them  out,  the 
package  includes  a  range  of  simple 
drawing  tools  for  highlighting  pertinent 
features  and  adding  notes.  If  you're 
wired  you  might  want  to  put  a  map  on 
your  website  and,  provided  you  stickto 
some  copyright  guidelines,  M  icrosoft  has 
no  problems  with  you  doing  so. 

Autoroute  is  a  great  package,  but  it 
has  one  big  problem,  which  is  no  fault  of 
its  own:  competition.  The  RAC  and  AA 


C omprehensive  maps  can  be  downloaded  into  PDAs  for  on-the-move  viewing 


both  offer  extensive  UK-based  route¬ 
mapping  services  on  their  websites  for 
free  and  you  can  pay  for  a  lot  of  phone 
calls  to  your  ISP  for  the  price  of  a  copy  of 
Autoroute.  To  compare  the  three  we  set 
each  an  identical  task.  The  RAC  and  AA 
services  assume  their  own  average 
speeds,  so  we  left  those  in  Autoroute  set 
to  M  icrosoft's  defaults.  We  told  each 
that  we  wanted  to  take  the  fastest  route 
from  Chelmsford  to  Swansea. 

Each  took  pretty  much  the  same 
route,  with  the  shortest  being  the  RAC  at 
234  miles  and  the  longest  the  AA 
completing  the  trip  in  238.5  miles. 
Autoroute  came  home  at  235.5.  These 
figures  are  so  close,  though,  that  they 
can  easily  be  explained  awayas  being 
within  an  acceptable  margin  of  error. 

The  supplementary  information 
returned  was  of  more  interest,  though. 
TheAA  warned  us  about  the  toll  payable 
on  using  the  second  Severn  crossing,  but 
Autoroute  only  gave  us  an  overall  cost 
based  on  the  price  of  petrol.  Likewise, 
the  RAC  impressed  us  by  incorporating 
up-to-the-minute  travel  news  into  its 
route.  Another  nice  touch  from  the  RAC 
was  the  ability  to  tell  it  when  you'll  be 
travelling  and  it'll  email  you  the  route 
just  before  you  setoff,  incorporating 
traffic  news  relevant  at  the  time. 

TheAA  and  RAC  routes  should 
always  be  up  to  date,  being  live  systems, 
but  Autoroute  has  a  map  feedback 


utility,  guiding  you  through  a  series  of 
screens  that  will  gather  your  comments 
and  feed  back  for  the  next  edition. 

AutorouteGB  2001  is  a  well  put 
together  package  that  will  be  ideal  for 
anyone  with  a  car  but  in  an  ageof  cheap 
Internet  connections,  you  can  get  pretty 
much  the  same  information  onlinefor 
free.  Autoroute  will  produce  a  better 
map  but  most  users  will  find  printed 
directions  of  greater  benefit  and  this  is 
an  area  where  both  the  AA  and  RAC 
currently  have  the  upper  hand  if  your 
travelling  is  primarily  within  the  U  K. 

NIK  RAWLINSON 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £59.99  (£51.06  exVAT) 

CONTACT  M  icrosoft  0345  002  000 
www.microsoft.com 
SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium 
processor;  Windows95/98/NT4  or  later, 

16M  B  of  RAM  (32M  BforWindowsNT), 

145  -  200M  B  of  available  hard  drive  space, 
double-speed  or  faster  CD-ROM  drive, 
256-colour  SVGA  monitor;  mouse 
PROS  Fast  route  mapping,  easy  to  use,  up 
to  date 

CONS  You  can  do  thesamethingforfree 
online 

OVERALL  A  great  product  that  has  so  me  stiff 
competition  from  its  rivals 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  its 


SOFTWARE  > 


SOFTWARE  >  > 


Cubase  VST  5.0 


-  —  The  sequencer  of  choice  for  budding  desktop  musicians  has  made  the  path  to  success  smoother 


Since  its  early  days  on  the  Atari  ST, 
Cubase  has  been  the  sequencer 
of  choice  for  huge  numbers  of 
professional  musicians,  particularly  in 
Europe.  It's  not  surprising  really,  as 
Steinberg  has  worked  hard  overtheyears 
to  make  sure  that  musicians  enjoy  rather 
than  endure  using  the  software. 

Cubase  has  led  the  wayon  the 
technology  front,  having  a  number  of 
firsts  to  its  name,  including  the 
introduction  ofthegraphical-arrange 
page,  native  hard-disk  recording  (using 
theold  Atari  Falcon's 
built-in  audio  capabilities) 
and  realtime  effects  with 
the  arrival  of  Virtual 
Studio  Technology  (VST). 

However,  the  fast  pace 
of  development  hasn't 
been  without  its  troubles. 

Updates,  while  usually 
fixing  large  numbers  of 
small  bugs,  have 
sometimes  introduced 
new  nasty  ones,  forcing 
Steinberg  to  make  quick 
revisions.  So  now  we're  at 
version  5.0  and  Steinberg 
has  not  onlyputthe 
software  through  a  visual 
design  overhaul,  but  also 
rejigged  its  audio  engine. 

Thefirst  thing  you'll 

notice  is  the  updated  interface.  Steinberg 
has  taken  a  long  hard  look  at  the  menu 
system  and  decided  that  it  was  getting  a 
bit  out  of  hand.  The  result  is  that  the 
Audio  menu  has  now  been  dumped  and 
a  new  Panels  menu  has  been  added.  This 
Panels  menu  is  now  the  place  to  lookfor 
all  theVST functions,  such  astheeffects 
and  mixer  windows,  and  also  where 
you'll  find  the  MIDI  mixer  and  interactive 
phase  synthesiser.  The  Structure  and 
Functions  menus  have  also  been 
expanded  to  include  entries  for  the  new 
features  present  in  this  update.  This  fresh 
approach  will  take  a  bit  of  getting  used 
to  for  existing  users,  but  after  a  while  you 
start  to  seethe  logic  behind  the  change. 

There  are  plenty  of  other  tweaks  to 
the  user  interface.  Cubase  is  at  last  fully 
drag-and-drop  enabled.  You  can  drag 
parts  (M IDI)  and  audio  (waveforms) 
from  oneArrange window  into  another 
or  between  the  desktop  and  folders. 

Both  M  IDI  and  audio  tracks  can  now 
be  individually  zoomed  in  on  thearrange 
page,  instead  of  you  having  to  zoom  in 


Top:  M  arkers  enable  the  user  to  quickly  jump  between 
specific  parts  of  the  arrangement 
B  ottom:  C  ubase  allows  a  number  of  elements  to  be  moved 
using  simple  drag  and  drop  commands 


on  the  entire  arrangement.  This  is  a  neat 
feature  that  Emagic's  Logic  sequencer 
has  already  had  for  sometime,  so  it's 
nice  to  see  Steinberg  paying  attention  to 
thecompetition. 

Perhaps  the  simplest  but  best 
addition  to  the  user  interface  is  the  new 
markers fortheArrange  page.  It  has 
always  been  frustrating  jumping  forward 
and  backward  between  sections  of  a  long 
arrangement.  Now  you  can  set  and  name 
markers  fordifferent  partsof  the 
arrangement  and  quickly  select  areas  to 
jump  between  byclicking  on  the  Marker 
button  atthetop  of  theArrange  window. 

If  you're  into  filter  and  M  IDI  gating 
effects,  you'll  love  the  new  dedicated 
controller  editor.  Thisallowsyou  to  edit 
controller  data  for  VST  plug-in 
controllers  and  MIDI  mixer  events  as  well 
as  M  IDI  events.  It's  been  a  longtime 
coming,  but  it's  great  to  finally  see  this  as 
a  full  standalone  editor. 

There  are  plenty  of  new  features  on 
theaudio  sidetoo.  All  versions  of  Cubase 
can  now  record  in  24bit  resolution  - 


although  this  is  only 
useful  if  you  have  a  20- 
or  24bit-capable  audio 
card.  Dither  is  also 
included  for  reducing 
files  from  24  to  16bit 
and  if  you  purchase  the 
high-end  Cubase/32 
you'll  also  get  the 
TrueTapefacilities  that 
act  like  Steinberg's 
M  agneto  plug-in, 
simulating  the  warmth 
of  analog  tape. 
However,  there  is 
one  problem  with  this  new  upgrade  and 
that's  the  Dongle.  We've  never  been  keen 
on  Dongles  as  a  means  of  copy 
protection  astheyonlyinconvenience 
legitimate  users  of  the  software.  This  time 
it's  even  worse:  if  you're  upgrading,  you'll 
have  to  send  in  your  old  Dongleand  wait 
for  Steinberg  to  send  you  a  new  one.  This 
means  that  you'll  be  without  the  main 
hub  of  your  studio  for  at  least  a  few  days. 

U  nlike  previous  upgrades  version  5.0 
doesn't  have  any  major  headline¬ 
grabbing  features,  apart  from  maybe  the 
addition  of  24bit  recording  to  all 
flavours  of  the  software.  Steinberg  has 
settled  down  on  thefeature-adding 
frenzy  and  turned  its  attention  to  making 
the  platform  more  stable  and  user 
friendly  with  a  wealth  of  editing  options 
and  cleaning  up  the  user  interface. 
Overall,  Steinberg  has  taken  a  fantastic 
product  and  made  it  even  better. 

NIALLMAGENNIS 

DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  Cubase  VST  5.0  f  329 
(£280  exVAT),  5.0  upgradef  99  (£84  exVAT) 
CONTACT  Arbiter M  usic Technology 
020  8970  1909 
www.steinberg.net 
SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Windows 
98/2000, 200M  HzPentium  (450M  Hz 
Pentium  III  or  Athlon  recommended),  64M  B 
of  RAM  (128M  B  recommended),  fast  EIDE 
orSCSI  hard  drive,  M  M  EorASIO-compliant 
sound  card 

PROS  24bit recording,  MIDI  mixer, dedicated 
controller  editor  and  a  whole  host  of  other 
additions 

CONS  Annoying Donglecopy protection 
OVERALL  Cubase  VST  continues  to  lead  the 
pack  in  both  features  and  usability 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Web  Traffic  Maximizer 

This  software  makes  light  work  of  submitting  your  site  but  it  won't  give  you  an  unfair  advantage 


■  T.  p  "'a  .  m  -l  ■ 

i — " .  — 

7 

- . m 

■  ■  ■  ■ 

J-fr.  W.  1  1  ■ 

_ 

A 

i  i  ii  ? n  J 

WebT raffic  M  aximizer  gives  you  an  update  of  how  your 
site  is  progressing  up  the  list  on  each  search  engine 


Billing  itself  as  the  most  powerful 
traffic-building  tool  available, 
Web  Traffic  M  aximizer  submits 
theaddressofyoursiteto  thetop  50 
search  engines  around  the  world.  You'll 
have  heard  of  most  of  them  -  Yahoo  and 
Lycos  are  two  -  but  some,  such  as 
Lifestyle  UK,  are  less  common  and  make 
you  question  how  they  define 'top'. 

In  a  nutshell,  the  package  takes  the 
legwork  out  of  getting  yourself  listed. 
Anyone  who's  tried  to  get  their  site  to  the 
top  of  an  engine's  results  pile  knows  that 
there's  a  lot  of  hard  work  involved. 
Clearly,  the  most  important  thing  to  do 
is  to  define  meta  tags  containing 
keywords  within  the  head  of  each  and 
every  page  on  the  site.  If  you've  finished 
your  site  without  doing  this,  it's  unlikely 
you'll  want  to  go  back  and  add  them 
throughout  so  the  keyword  fields  in  this 
software  will  come  in  handy,  allowing 
you  to  specify  as  many  keywords  as  you 
feel  are  relevant,  which  it  will  then  use  in 
submitting  your  site  for  indexing. 

0  n  ce  yo  u  r  keywo  rd  s  h  a  ve  b  een 
entered  you  can  select  which  of  the  50 
engines  you  want  to  hit  or  opt  to  submit 
to  them  all  at  once.  This  is  a  surprisingly 
quick  process  and  within  10  minutes  our 
test  site  was  lodged  with  all  but  two  that 
had  refused  connection  attempts.  A 
progress  screen  shows  which  engines 
have  been  successfully  hit  and  any 
problems  encountered  are  listed  so  that 
you  can  right-click  and  work  on  a  fix 
Submitting  your  site  is  only  half  the 
story,  though,  because  Web  Traffic 
M  aximizer  allows  you  to  monitoryour 
ranking.  It  is  obvious  that  the  earlier  a 
search  returns  a  hit  on  your  site  the 
better.  You  don't,  after  all,  want  visitors 
having  to  search  through  10  pages  of 
resu  1 1  s  b  ef  o  re  t  h  ey  get  t  o  yo  u  r  U  R  L . 

M  aximizer  will  therefore  use  search  terms 
you  specify  to  hunt  through  everyone  of 
the  50  engines  in  its  database  in  blocks 


of  five  and  report  back 
how  high  up  each  comes 
up  with  your  site.  Reports 
can  besavedsoyoucan 
track  progress  across 
several  months. 

The  Internet  is  a 
transient  medium,  so  you 
welcome  the  update 
screens  that  crop  up  every 
few  uses  or  so  and  it's 
comforting  to  know  that 
you're  marketing  your  site 
using  the  most  up-to-date 
product  available. 

If  you're  expecting  a 
quick-fixsolution  you'll  be 
disappointed.  Getting 
listed  in  search  engines  is  a 
lengthy  process  and  all  Maximizer  really 
does  is  lodges  your  URL  in  the  long 
queues  of  other  worthy  sites  waiting  to 
be  indexed.  What  it  does  do,  though,  is 
dramatically  reduce  the  amount  of  work 
you'll  have  to  do.  In  the  two  weeks  we 
spent  testing  the  product  it  did  nothing 
to  improveour  ranking  on  any  of  its  50 
search  engines,  but  then  manual  entry  of 
the  same  sites  to  the  same  engines  would 
have  had  much  the  same  effect. 

Those  with  eagle  eyes  will  spot  in  the 
screenshot  above  that  the  title  bar  says 
TopDog.  This  is  because  Web  Traffic 
M  aximizer  is  a  cut-down  version  of  this 
much  larger  package,  featuring  only  the 
50  most  popular  search  engines,  rather 
thanTopDog'sfull  database  of  232.  The 
nameTopDogrel ates  to  yo u r  site's  statu s 
once  you  become  the  first  hit  on  a  page 
of  results  -  somewhere  we  all  want  to  be. 

To  try  it  out  you  can  download  an 
evaluation  version  from  TopDog's 
website  at  www.topdog2000.com.  This 
onlyletsyou  submit  to  five  of  the  engines 
it  supports,  but  if  you  decide  to  register, 
it'll  open  up  the  rest  of  its  database  of 
engines  to  you.  Be  wary,  though  -  its 


3.2M  B  download  will  takearound 
quarter  of  an  houron  a  56K  modem. 
Registering  TopDog  is  more  expensive 
than  investing  in  a  UK-sourced  copy  of 
Web  Traffic  M  aximizer  (see  contact 
details  below),  so  you  need  to  besure 
that  the  180  or  so  extra  search  engines 
you'll  get  to  use  are  really  worth  paying 
twice  the  price  for. 

NIK  RAWLINSON 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £39.99  (£34.03  exVAT) 

CONTACT  M  ediaGold  020  7221 3755 
www.topdog2000.com 
SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  486  processor 
or  better,  Windows  9xor  NT4, 32M  B  of  RAM , 
5M  B  available  hard  drive  space,  SVGA 
monitor,  dual-speed  CD-ROM  drive 
PROSTakesthe  legwork  out  of  URL 
submission 

CONSThereisnoquick-fixwayto  getting 
yourself  a  top  slot  in  the  search  engines 
OVERALL  If  you're  prepared  to  sit  it  out,  this 
is  an  easy  way  of  getting  yourself  listed  online 


•  ite 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


SOFTWARE  > 


BUSINESS  >  > 


Ricoh  Af  icio  AP2100 

A  good  workhorse  printer  that  will  handle  anything  you  throw  at  it,  although  it  doesn't  excel 


We  do  n't  often  see  printers 
from  Ricoh,  but  its  latest 
product  is  the  Aficio 
AP2100  -  a  21ppm,  laser  printer 
designed  for  the  office. 

Network  connectivity  can  be  added 
by  installing  a  separately  available 
network  board.  Ourfirstjob,  therefore, 
was  to  plug  in  the  card  and  get  the 
network  set  up.  0  ne  problem  was  that 
Ricoh  provided  a  vertical  network  card, 
making  it  difficult  to  line  up  the 
connector  properly. 

After  plugging  the  machine  into  the 
network,  wefired  up  the  management 
software,  which 
scours  the  network 
looking  for  printers 
that  have  not  been 
configured.  We  had 
to  manually  supply 
an  IP  address,  as 
the  printer  does  not 
use  the  Dynamic  Ho 
Configuration  Protocol 
(DHCP)  that  allows  IP 


addresses  to  be  assigned  automatically. 
This  would  have  made  life  a  lot  easier. 

The  management  software  also 
allows  the  Af  icio's  status  to  be  viewed 
from  across  the  network.  In  addition, 
you  can  change  settings  such  as  the 
default  paper  size  and  print  quality. 

With  management  out  of  the  way,  we 
loaded  theTCP/IP  printing  software 
provided  onto  the  client  machine.  This 
creates  a  network  port  on  which  the 
client  can  communicate  to  the  printer 
using  the  standard  drivers.  The  software 
has  all  the  reporting  aspects  of  the 
administrator  account  without  being 
ableto  changeanything. 

We  used  a  50-page  Word 
document  and  a 
50-page  pdf  file 
to  test  the 
printer's  speed 
and  quality, 
while  a  greyscale 
imageallowed  us 
to  test  the  output. 
The  results  were  a  mixed 


bag.  The  pdf  file  only  managed  to  come 
out  at  13.5ppm,  whiletheWord 
document  managed  a  much  better 
20ppm.  In  both  cases,  the  text  appeared 
well  formed  except  for  large  fonts  where 
there  was  some  ghosting.  The  same 
quality  appeared  on  the  greyscale  image, 
which,  whileviewable,  showed  evidence 
of  density  variation. 

Overall,  Ricoh  hasdonea  good 
job  here,  but  there's  nothing  to  get 
excited  about. 

DAVID  LUDLOW 


DETAILS 

★★★ 

PRICE  £  1,333.63  (£1,135  exVAT) 
CONTACT  Ricoh  020  8261 4000 
www.ricoh-europe.com 
PROS  Good  management  software 
CONS  It  could  be  mo  re  straightforward  to 
get  onto  the  network 

OVERALL  The  print  quality  isfine,  butthe 
device  is  nothingto  write  homeabout 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Dell  PowerApp.web  100 

A  pared-down  web  server,  optimised  for  performance,  which  will  suit  inexperienced  users 


A  standard  web  server  contains  a 
lot  of  extra  clutter  that  is  not 
needed  and  consumes  system 
resources.  A  typical  install  of  an 
operating  system,  such  as  Windows 
2000,  occurs  with  web-server  software 
sitting  on  top.  As  the  OS  will  be  loaded 
to  the  gills  with  software  that  doesn't 
need  to  be  there  for  web  serving,  this  is  a 
little  redundant. 

A  better  approach  is  to  take 
dedicated  hardware  and  software  and 
put  it  all  in  one  box  These  kinds  of 
appliances  have  worked  well  for 
companies  such  as  Cobalt  and  its  Q  ube. 
Dell  has  decided  that  it's  such  a  good 
idea  it'll  do  thesamewith  the 
PowerApp.web  100.  It  provides  the  basic 
operating  system  -  Windows  2000, 
or  Red  Hat  Linux- with  all 
the  unnecessary 
fluff 

removed, 
leaving  a 
stream¬ 
lined  OS 
for  the  web 
server  to  sit  on. 

There  are  also  two  different  web 
servers  to  choose  from.  If  you  optforthe 
Windows  2000  model,  you  get  IIS 
(Internet  Information  Server),  while  Red 
Hat  Linuxcomes  with  Apache.  For  this 
review,  we  were  sent  the  W  indows  2000 
model,  which  is  generally  easier  to  setup, 
although  it  is  more  expensive. 

From  the  outside,  there's  nothing 
particularly  unusual  about  thelU  high 
server.  Removing  the  front  panel  gives 
access  to  thefloppydrive,  a  slimline 
CD-ROM  and  the  power  button. 
Strangely,  you  cannot  access  the  hard 
drives  from  thefront-  you'll  need  a 
screwdriver  to  delve  into  the  internals  of 
the  case. 

Once  the  top  panel  has  been 
removed,  the  two  9.1GB  Quantum  Atlas 
Vhard  drives  are  clearly  visible,  although 
getting  them  out  of  the  case  is  another 
matter.  Taut  cabling  makes  it  difficult  to 
slidethem  out. 

This  is  theonly  problem  internally 
though,  with  everything  else,  including 
thememoryand  650M  HzPentium  III 
processor,  all  easily  accessible.  The  same 
goes  for  the  expansion  slots,  which 
house thegraphics card  and  an  Adaptec 
29160  SCSI  card. 

When  we  started  the  machine  up  for 
thefirsttime,  theworkthat  Dell  has  put 


in  began  to  show.  Thefirst  thing  you 
are  presented  with  is  a  Kick-Start  wizard. 
This  allows  you  to  configure  the  web 
server  for  use,  including  setting  an  IP 
address,  DNS  Server  address,  and 
prim  ary  gateway.  Beyond  this,  Kick-Start 
is  capable  of  creating  default  configura¬ 
tion  files.  Thesefiles  can  then  be  used  to 
quickly  apply  configuration  information 
to  additional  PowerApp.web  machines. 
O  nee  Kick-Start  has  completed  its  job, 
the  server  is  ready  to  start  processing 
web  requests. 

The  default  settings  are  not  going  to 
suit  every  company,  so  Dell  has  created 
the  PowerApp  Admin  tool  to  help 


change  server  co  n f  i  gu  rat i  o  n  sett i  n  gs. 
Running  as  a  web  page,  this  application 
allows  remote  management  of  both  the 
web  server  settings  and  the  physical 
machine.  Appearing  with  a  tool  bar 
running  down  the  left  side  of  the  screen, 
it  gives  one-touch  access  to  all  the  tools 
that  you'll  need.  O  n  the  physical  server 
front,  backup,  disk  defragmentation  and 
cleanup  tools  are  accessible.  Another 
page  allows  software  such  as  task 
manager  and  performance  monitor 
to  be  run. 

Apart  from  this,  the  main  task  that 
the  tool  provides  is  configuring  IIS.  All 
themajorfunctionsoftheweb  server  a  re 
stripped  out  to  allow  quick 
configuration.  O  ne  benefit  is  that  it  is 
easy  to  add  another  IP  address  to  the 
server,  allowing  multiple  websites  to  be 
run  from  a  single  machine. 

O  t  h  er  f  ea  t  u  res  i  n  c  I  u  d  e  c  rea  t  i  n  g  web 
users,  assigning  disk  quotas,  and 
creating  an  SSL  certificate  for  secure 
transmissions.  How  useful  this 
application  is  depends  on  your  level  of 
knowledge.  If  you  just  want  a  simple 
appliance  that  you  can  get  up  and 
running  without  needing  to  understand 
how  it  all  works,  this  is  a  godsend.  Dell 
hasdoneasterlingjob  of  allowing  access 


only  to  the  important  features  of  the  web 
software,  without  assuming  vast 
technical  knowledge.  However,  if  you 
already  understand  a  lot  about  IIS,  then 
this  application  is  more  likely  to  get  in 
the  way  of  your  standard  administration. 
Fortunately,  you  can  always  switch  back 
to  the  standard  method  instead. 

Installed  under  the  Administration 
Tools  section  of  the  start  menu,  is  the 
standard  IIS  console.  IIS  also  installs  with 
an  administration  website  allowing 
configuration  functions  to  be  performed 
from  across  the  web. 

The  software  is  certainly  up  to  the 
task,  but  how  does  it  perform?  To 
answer  the 
question  we 
loaded  Intel's 
I o meter  version 
1998.10.08 
onto  the  server 
and  ran  the  web 
server  workload. 
This 

emulates 
the  strain 
that  the 
server  would  be 
subjected  to  under 
typical  web  serving  conditions. 

The  important  result  to  look  out  for 
is  the  number  of  I/O  s  per  second  the 
server  can  perform,  as  web  serving 
involves  manysmall  file  transfers.  The 
PowerApp.web  achieved  94.76,  which 
wasn't  a  long  way  behind  the  124  I/Os 
scored  by  a  dual-processor  machine  with 
a  RAID  system. 

There'sno  denying  thequalityof  the 
PowerApp.web.  The  software  allows  easy 
configuration  for  the  novice,  while 
leaving  the  more  in-depth  features  for 
the  web  guru. 

DAVID  LUDLOW 

DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £3,215.98  (£2,737  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Dell  0870  907  5664 

www.dell.com 

PROS  Easyto  setup;  good-quality  hardware 
CONS  I  interface  may  be  too  simplistic  for 
some  managers 

OVERALL  A  good  product  based  on 
fast  hardware  that  provides  both  enterprise 
scalability,  and  a  good  starting  point 
for  websites 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


BUSINESS  > 


Personal  Computer  World 

BESTBUYS 


YOUR  GUIDE  TO  TODAY’S  TOP  PRODUCTS  »» 


Based  on  AM  D's  Socket  A  750M  Hz  processor, 
an  M  SI  K7T  Pro  motherboard  and  128M  B  of 
PC133  memory,  this  machine  makes  use  of  the 
latest  technology.  You  get  a  20.5GB  IBM  hard 
drive  and  a  32MB  Hercules  3D  Prophet  DDR- 
DVI.  Bonuses  are  the  17in  CTXTrinitron 
monitor,  eight-speed  DVD  and  M  itsumi  CD- 
RW.  A  killer  price  for  a  killer  system. 

ReviewA  ugust  2000,  p78  Price £1,17 3. 83  (£999  exVAT) 

Contact/A  tlas07000  285  275  www.atlasplc.com 


M  aking  use  of  Intel's  650M  H  z  SpeedStep 
processor  this  notebook  has  blistering 
performance.  The  screen  and  keyboard  are  both 
excellent,  and  the  notebook  enables  you  to  do 
some  basic  video  editing  using  the  composite  in 
and  out  ports  at  the  back  through  the  ATi 
mobility  video  card,  or  for  digital  video  there's  a 
FireWire  port. 

Review  April  2000,  pl58  Pric  e£2,136  (£1,818  exVAT) 

Contact  Gateway  0800  55  2000  www.gateway.com/uk 


At  the  heart  of  the  system  beats  AM  D's  Athlon 
850M  Hz  with  on-die  cache.  You  also  get 
128M  B  of  PC100  memoryand  a  large30.7GB 
M  axtor  DiamondM  ax  hard  drive.  The  excellent 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  II  graphics  card  drives  a 
19in  M  itsubishi  Diamond  Plus 91.  Mesh  has 
produced  a  fantastic  package  for  any  user  after 
the  latest  technology  at  a  bargain  price. 

Reviews  ugust  2000,  p76  Price  £1,7 49. 7 5  (£1,489  exVAT) 
Contact M  esh  020  8208  4706  www.meshcomputers.com 


The  Z600N  E  has  taken  everything  that  was  good 
about  theoriginal  and  made  it  that  little  bit 
better.  It  is  built  around  a  650M  Hz  Pentium  III 


SpeedStep  processor,  which  drops  the  speed 
and  voltageof  theCPU  in  order  to  preserve 
battery  power.  With  128M  B  of  RAM ,  a  12GB 
hard  disk,  IrDA,  a  modem  and  a  FireWire  socket, 
theVaio  is  both  versatile  and  ultra-portable. 

Review  October  2000,  p79  Pric e £2, 399  (£2,042  exVAT) 
Contact  Sony  087 05  424  424  www.sony.co.uk 


HIGH-END  PC 


Mesh 

Matrix  1.1  GT  Pro 


M  aking  good  useof  AM  D's  l.lGHzAthlon, 
which  has  256KB  of  on-die  Level  2  cache,  this  PC 
means  business.  It's  based  on  an  Asus  A7V-100 
motherboard  with  a  Promise  PCI-ATA100 
controller  that  really  helps  it  to  fly.  There's  also  a 
64M  B  GeForce2  GTS  graphics  card,  256M  B  of 
RAM,  DVD  and  CD-RW  drives,  a  Creative  Sound¬ 
Blaster  Live!  1024  and  a  19in  Taxan  monitor. 

Review  October  2000,  p73  Price  £2, 348. 83  (£1,999  exVAT) 
Contact  M  esh  020  8208  4706  www.meshcomputers.com 


PDA 


Ericsson 

MC218 


Based  on  the  Psion  Series  5mx,  the  M  C218 
hasl6M  B  of  memoryand  a  processor  speed 
of  37M  H  z.  The  email  software  is  built  into  the 
ROM  and  supports UU Encoded  attachments 
and  M IM  E.  Frames  and  Java  1.1.4  are 
supported  by  the  web  browser.  Ericsson  has 
even  bundled  an  IrDA  modem  for  connecting 
the  device  to  its  range  of  mobile  phones. 

Review  May2000,  p204  Price  f 379  (£322  exVAT) 

Contact  Ericsson  0990  237 237  www.ericsson.com 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


DIGITAL  CAMERA 


WEBCAM 


SOUND  CARD 


COLOUR  INKJET 


BUDGET  LASER  PRINTER 


COLOUR  PHOTO  PRINTER 


BUSINESS  LASER  PRINTER 


MULTI-FUNCTION  DEVICE 


GRAPHICS  CARD 


EXTERNAL  STORAGE 


SCSI  HARD  DRIVE 


Sony  . 

H  |  Creative 

(g||l  i  Creative  Labs 

Cyber-shot  DSC-S70  l<5 

P  I  WebCam  Go  Plus 

IIP  ]  SB  Live!  Platinum  !|P 

Sony's  S70  uses  the  latest  battery  technology  to 
provide  around  120-150  minutes  of  usage  and 
is  Sony's  first  genuine  3. 3megapixel  camera. 
Image  quality  is  superb.  All  in  all,  theS70  is  the 
best  all-round  3.3megapixel  camera  out  there. 


With  8M  B  of  memoryand  a  built-in  mic,  the 
WebCam  Go  can  also  be  used  as  a  low-res 
handheld  snapper  or  video  camera.  With 
excellent  image  quality  and  software  you  can 
snap  up  to  150  pictures  in  32bit  colour. 


This  is  exactly  what  gamers  and  budding  PC 
musicians  have  been  asking  for  -  great  sound 
quality  and  excellent  bundled  software  make 
it  a  winner.  Wethink  it'sthebest  sound 
product  ever. 


Kyocera 

FS-1000 


This  printer  is  driven  by  a  75M  H  z  PowerPC 
processor,  comes  with  a  standard  4M  B  of  RAM 
and  can  print  up  to  1,200dpi.  It  also  hasan 
environmentallvfriendlv  re-usable  toner  drum. 


Hewlett-Packard 

LaserJet  4050TN 


Hewlett-Packard 

OfficeJet  G85 


ATi 

Radeon 


The  4050TN's  1,200dpi  resolution  is  out¬ 
standing,  and  with  a  133M  Hz  NEC  processor 
and  16M  B  of  RAM  it  can  turn  out  16ppm.  It 
also  comes  network-ready  as  standard. 


A  scanner,  photocopier  and  colour  printer  in 
one,  that  produces  vibrant  colours  and  realistic 
skin  tones.  Well  suited  to  home  or  office  work 
-  and  it's  keenly  priced. 


With  an  integrated  Transform  and  Lighting 
engine,  the  Radeon  also  supports  hardware 
environment  bump  mapping  for  lifelike  surfaces 
and  its  32bit  performance  is  second  to  none. 


LaCie 

PocketDrive 


This  tiny  external  6GB  hard  drive  has  two 
FireWire  ports  and  a  single  USB  connector.  The 
FireW  ire  ports  mean  the  drive  can  be  daisy 
chained  to  other  FireW  ire  peripherals. 


This  uses  the  same  engine  as  the  higher  spec 
P1100  and  is  a  breeze  to  setup.  Connection  is  via 
the  parallel  or  USB  interface  and  drivers  allow 
you  to  adjust  the  printed  page  drying  time. 


Epson 

Stylus  Photo  870 


Aimed  at  the  professional  imaging  user,  our  test 
photo  was  beautifully  rendered,  there  was  no 
evidence  of  undesirable  banding  and  skin  tones 
were  accurately  reproduced . 


IBM 

Deskstar  75GXP 


A  75GB  drive  with  an  areal  density  of  11GB/ 
sq  in.  It  has  a  spindle  speed  of  7,200rpm,  a 
2M  B  data  buffer  and  an  average  seek  time  of 
8.5ms.  A  lot  of  storage  for  the  money. 


Quantum 

Atlas  V 


Increased  areal  density  makes  this  36GB  drive 
impressive.  It  may  not  be  as  fast  as  10,000rpm 
drives,  but  with  seek  times  around  6.3ms  and 
a  spin  rate  of  7,200rpm,  it's  good  value. 


Hewlett-Packard 

DeskJet  930C 


Review  September  1999,  p96  Pric  e£l,580.38  (£1,345  exVAT) 
Contact  HP  0990  474747  www.europe.hp.com 


Review  August 2000,  p97  Pric  e£750  (£638.30  exVAT) 
Contact  Sony 0990  111  999  www.sony.co.uk 


Review  July 2 000,  pl08  Pric  e£351.33  (£299  exVAT) 
Contact  LaCie 020  7872  8000  www.eiacie.com 


Review  October  2000,  p96  Price  £12  9  (£109.79  exVAT) 
Contact  Creative  www.europe.creative.com 


Review  February 2000,  p83  Price  £179  (£152  exVAT) 
ContactCreativeLabs0800  973  069  www.soundblaster.com 


Review  September  2000,  pi  12  Pric  e£599.25  (£510exVAT) 
Contact  HP  0990  474747  www.europe.hp.com 


Review  September  2000,  pl09  Price  £430.05  (£366  exVAT) 
Contact dabs.com  020  8523  4020  www.dabs.com 


Review  October 2 000,  pi 9 9  Pric e£299  (£254.46  exVAT) 
Contact  A  Ti  01628  533115  www.ati.com 


Review  July 2000,  plOO  Pric  e  £399.50  (£340  exVAT) 
Contact  Quantum  01344  353  500  www.quantum.com 


Review  July 2000,  p201  Price  £2  75  (£149  exVAT) 
Contact  HP  099047  47  47  www.europe.hp.com 


Review  October  2000,  pi  10  Price  £329  (£280  exVAT) 
Contact  Kyocera  01 18  931  1500  www.kyocera.co.uk 


Review  July 2000,  p206  Price  £207.98  (£177  exVAT) 
Contact  Simply 020  8523  4020  www.simply.co.uk 


SOCKET  A  MOTHERBOARD 


REMOVABLE  STORAGE 


PROJECTOR 


An  AM  D  Athlon/ Duron  motherboard  that  uses 
VIA's  KT133  chipset  and  has  AGP  4x,  ACPI, 
integrated  AC97  audio  support,  five  PCI  slots, 
plusoneshared  with  a  CNR.  It's  simpleto  setup 
and  with  a  200M  H  z  FSB  is  fast  too. 


W  ith  a  d  isc  capacity  of  4.7G  B  per  side, 
compatibility  with  existing  2.6GB  as  well  as  new 
4.7GB  persidediscs,  and  a  versatile  software 
bundle,  this  is  a  great  product  for  anyone  who 
needs  to  store  large  amounts  of  data. 


A  fantastic  unit  that  uses  the  latest  DLP  chip.  It 
even  allows  you  to  view  slides  with  the  lights 
on.  It  is  expensive,  but  if  you  need  something 
this  small  and  light  then  the  LP335  gives  an 
extremely  sharp,  crisp  image. 


Review  October  2000,  p92  Pric  e£99.88  (£85  exVAT) 

Contact  Panrix 01 13  244  4958  www.panrix.com 

Review  October  2000,  p98  Pric e  £374.82  (£319  exVAT) 
Contact  Panasonic0845  6003535  www.panasonic.co.uk 

Review  August  2000,  pll8  Price  £4,876.23  (£4,150  exVAT) 
Contact  InFocus 0800  028  6470  www.infocus.com 

171 N  MONITOR 

191 N  MONITOR 

21IN  MONITOR 

Using  a  Sony  FD  Trinitron  tube,  this  monitor's 
slim  casing  somehow  makes  the  display  seem 
larger.  Image  quality  is  superb  and  a  USB  hub  is 
built  in  to  the  base  as  standard. 

Review  January 2000,  p79  Price  f 239. 70  (£204  exVAT) 
Contact  Simply  0800  035  2100  www.ctxeurope.com 


Equipped  with  an  FD  Trinitron  tube  this  has  a 
constant  0.24mm  pitch  across  the  screen.  It  also 
has  an  additional  BNC  input  and  a  built-in  USB 
hub  as  standard. 

Review  June  2000,  p91  Pric  e£358.37  (£305  exVAT) 
Contactdate.com  0800 138  5240  www.dabs.com 


The  name  Sony  is  synonymous  with  high-quality 
displays  and  this  21in  FD  Trinitron  monitor  is 
no  exception.  It  has  dual-input  connectors  and 
remains  crisp  even  up  to  1,800  x  1,440  at  75H  z. 

Review  May 2000,  p226  Pric  e£911  (£775  exVAT) 

Contact  Sony  0990  424  424  www.sony-cp.com 


LCD  MONITOR 


Sony 

SonySDM-N50 


SOUND  SYSTEM 


VideoLogic 

DigiTheatre 


ThisTFT  display  is  a  svelte  1.3cm  thickand  the 
screen  is  easy  to  position  with  its  multi-pivoted 
stand.  Thedisplayqualityisfirst  rateand  it  even 
has  built-in  speakers  and  a  headphone  socket. 

Reviews pril 2000,  p96  Price £1,291.32  (£1,099  exVAT) 
ContactSony0990  424  424  www.sony.co.uk 


This  set  includes  five  speakers,  a  subwoofer  and 
an  integrated  six-channel  amplifier  plus  a 
decoder.  Excellent  sound  quality  at  a  fair  price 
make  the  D  igiTheatre  a  must-have. 

Review January2000,  p81  Price  f 249  (£211.91  exVAT) 
Contact  Videologic01923  277  488  www.videologic.co.uk 


This8x4x32  EIDECDRW  package  has 
everything  you  need  to  get  started.  N  ot  only  is 
there  an  El  DE  cable  and  screws  to  mount  the 
drive,  but  also  a  CD-RW  disc  and  10  CD-R  discs. 

Review  June  2000,  pl92  Pric  e£141  (£120  exVAT) 

Contact  dabs.com  0800 138  5114  www.europe.creative.com 


Weighing  in  at  70g  and  no  larger  than  a  mouse, 
this  USB  ISDN  TA  opens  up  128Kbits/sec 
bandwidth  and  supports  G3  and  G4  faxing  as  well 
as  a  variety  of  voicemail  and  filetransfer  facilities. 

Review M  arch 2000,  p87  Pric e £104.57  (£89  exVAT) 

Contact  Eicon  Technology 020  8967  8000  www.eicon.com 


TheSC30  has  a  30GB  compressed  data 
capacity  and  using  Backup  Exec  it  achieved  over 
70M  bytes/ min.  Echo  software  provides  drive- 
letter  access  so  you  can  treat  it  like  a  hard  drive. 

Review  September  1999,  pl02  Pric  e£363.07  (£309  exVAT) 
Contact  Simply  020  8523  4020  www.onstream.com 


An  impressive  16-speed  DVD  reader  that 
includes  Cyberlink's  Power  DVD  movie  player. 
A  first-class  unit  that  marries  excellent 
performance  with  solid  build  quality. 

Review  August  2 000,  pl96  Pric  e£141.58  (£120.49  exVAT) 
Contact Jungle.com  0800  0355  355  www.aopen.nl 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


ii 


>  '  i 

Til 


If  you've  ever  wanted  to 

CREATE  YOUR  OWN  WORLD 
NOW'S  YOUR  CHANCE.  ON  THIS 
MO'NTH-S-CO.VER  disc  is  a  copy 
of  trueSpace  B/SETaITO^BaVID 

F _E_A  B.O.W-O  FT'E"  R  S  ST  E  P  -  B  Y  -  ST  E  P 
GUIDES  TO  PUTTING  TOGETHER 
SCENES  AND  BUILDING  MODELS 


These  days,  the  power  of  the  PC 
si  tti  n  g  i  n  yo  u  r  spare  bed  roo  m  - 
you  know,theoneyou  onlyuse 
for  surfing  the  web  and 
checkingyouremail  -  greatly 
exceeds  themillion-pound 
research  monstersofad  ecad  e  o  r  t  wo  ago .  T  h  i  s 
meansthatawholefascinatingworld  isopen  to 
you:theworld  of  3D  modellingand  rendering. 
You  can  get  yourself  goingforfree  and  produce 
someseriously  worthwhile  results  using 
trueSpace3/SE,which  ison  thecover  disc  this 
month.  As  well  as  thethree  workshops  on  the 
following  pages,  there  are  extensive  help  files  and 
demoson  thedisc,  and  theapplication  isn't  time 
or  save-limited. 

TheworldofCGI  (computer-generated 
imagery)  issplit  intothreemain  areas:  modelling, 
renderingand  animation.  If  you'retalking  about 
thekind  of  work  donefor  film  and  television,  or 
even  exten  si  ve  am  ateu  r  p  roj  ects,  t h  ere's  al  so  a 
fourth  step  of  compositing  and  post-production. 


But  when  you'restarting  out,  getting  to  grips 
with  modellingand  rendering arethefirst steps. 

Modelling 

Modelling  is  all  about  turning  objects  in  thereal 
world  ortheimagination  of  themodeller  into  a 
set  of  numbers  that  a  computer  can  useto 
produce  an  imageoranimation.The 
fundamental  and  most  used  typeof  3D  model  is 
thepolygon  mesh.  H  ere,  an  object  is  represented 
by  a  set  of  f  I  at  su  rf  aces  ( po  I  ygo  n  s)  i  n  t h  ree- 
dimensional  space.  Each  polygon  isdefined  bya 
set  of  po  i  n  ts  ( vert  i  ces) .  U  su  al  I  y  t  h  e  vert  i  ces  are 
described  byCartesian  co-ordinates,  in  other 
wordsthreenumbersdescribing  their  position  in 
each  of  thethreedimensions-  width,  height  and 
depth,  usually  referred  to  asX,  Y  and  Z. 

Thereason  polygon  meshes  area  popular  way 
of  representing  objects  isthat  they're  memory- 
efficient  and  makefor  fairly  easy  editing  of 
objects:  memory  efficient  because  you  only  need 
to  storethe  vertices  and  someinformation  about 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  137 


illustfiation  danielmackie 


3D  MODELLING  >  > 


The  art  of  animation 


The  major  commercial  useof  CGI  thesedays  is, 
of  course,  animated  sequences  for  film  and 
television.  Really  good  animation  facilities  are 
one  of  the  aspects  that  separates  the  very 
expensive  packages  from  the  lower-end  apps. 
It's  also  oneof  the  major  differences  between 
trueSpace3  and  4.  That's  not  to  say  that 
trueSpace3/SE  doesn't  haveanyanimation 
facilities,  and  you  can  get  some  good  results 
pretty  quickly,  but  be  prepared  to  get  frustrated 
at  the  lack  of  control  over  movement. 

Whatever  the  package,  though,  all 
computer  animation  works  on  thesame  basic 
principle,  called  keyframing.  Traditional 
cartoon  and  stop-motion  animation  a  la 
Chicken  Run  requires  each  and  everyframeto  be 
set  up  by  hand.  With  CGI,  you  can  bethe 
director  and  thecomputer  can  take thestrain. 
To  set  up  an  animation,  you  only  need  to 


define  a  series  of  keyframes  -  the  major 
moments  in  the  animation  where  certain 
events  happen.  Placeall  theobjects  in  the  scene 
where  they  need  to  beand  record  a  keyframe. 

By  default,  trueSpace  generates  keyframes 
automatically,  an  irritating  feature  that  you 
can  switch  off  by  right-clicking  on  the  Record 
button.  Once  you've  generated  your  first 
keyframe,  workout  how  many  seconds  need 
to  elapse  until  the  next  one.  If  you  want  your 
animation  to  run  at  25  frames  per  second 
(fps),  multiplythenumberof  seconds  by 25 
and  set  the  current  fra  me  to  that  number. 
Arrange  your  scene  the  way  you  want  it  to  be 
and  record  a  new  keyframe.  Now,  when  you 
hit  the  Play  button,  the  computer  will 
automatically generatetheframes  in  between 
thetwo  keyframes  by  interpolating  the  start 
and  finish  positions  (known  as'tweening'). 


Keyframing  itself  can  be  a  tricky  business 
though  -  initially  you'll  probablyfind  that  the 
objects  in  your  scene  don't  move  in  the  way 
you  expect,  orsomeaspect,  such  as  the 
rotation  of  an  object,  hasn't  been  animated 
properly.  With  trueSpace,  you  need  to  bear  in 
mind  that  the  behaviour  of  keyframe 
recording  changes  according  to  the  currently 
selected  tool,  and  it's  also  modified  when  the 
keyframe  monitor  window,  which  is  produced 
if  you  right-clickon  anyof  theanimation 
controls  other  than  Play  or  Record,  isopen. 
The  keyframe  monitor  is  a  rather  confusing 
system,  but  the  help  files  are  fairly  thorough, 
so  you  need  to  make  sure  you  read  them  very 
carefully.  trueSpace  3/SE  also  has  physical 
simulation  and  inverse  kinematics  controls, 
which  can  make  it  easy  to  produce  fun 
animations  with  the  minimum  of  effort. 


how  they'reconnected;  easy  to  edit  because  you 
can  move  poi  nts  arou  nd#  delete  faces  and  edges 
and  join  objectstogether  without  too  much 
complex  and  computationally  expensive  maths. 
Also,  when  professional  modellers  and  animators 
aredesigning models, they'll  often  makeareal, 
physical  model  and  usea3D  scanner  to  digitise 
it.Theresult  isa polygon  mesh. 

Thedownsideisthat  most  objects  in  thereal 
world  aren't  split  into  flat  facets-  they're  curvy, 
continuousand  smooth.  So,  if  you  want  realistic- 
looking  models,  you  need  to  model  your  object 
with  lotsof  polygons.Themorepolygonsyou 
have,  thesmaller  each  facet  of  theobject  and  the 
closer  the  representation  in  thecomputer  comes 
to  thenear-infinitely  smooth  objects  in  thereal 
world.  But  more  polygon  data  means  more 
memory  is  needed,  and  it  takes  longer  for  the 
computerto  manipulatethedata. 

When  you  start  model  ling  it's  easy  to  fall  into 
thetrap  of  using  far  too  much  detail  and  creating 
objects  at  too  high  a  resolution:  pretty  soon  your 
PC  starts thrashingthedisk asitpagesinformation 
to  theswap  file,  and  your  3D  model  ling  package 
beco  mes  u  n  u  sabl  y  si  o w.  0  n  e  of  t h  e  arts  of 
modelling  islearningto  useahigh  level  of  detail 
onlywhereit'srequired,  designing  modelswith 


compromisesto  lessen  thenumber  of  polygons, 
and  using  shading  schemes  such  asPhongshading 
that  hidelimited-resolution  models. 

Thereisan  alternatives  using  polygon 
meshes  to  represent  objects,  but  it's  generally 
only  used  by  themoreexpensive,  higher-end 
packages.  Thetechniqueis  cal  led  NURBS.  This 
bizarreacronym  standsfor  non-uniform  rational 
B-splines.  N  URBSarea3D  version  of  theBezier 
curves  you  mayhavecomeacrossin  2D  vector  art 
packages  I  ike  Corel  Draw,  whereyou  can  createa 
curve  and  then  manipulateitviacontrol  points. 
NURBS  objects  aredefi  ned  by  a  set  of 
mathematical  curves  rather  than  definite, 
d  i  screte  po  i  n  ts  i  n  space,  so  t  h  ey  effecti  vel  y  h  ave 
infiniteresolution.  Although  thedescription  of 
thecurves  them  selves  requires  a  tiny  amount  of 
memory,  when  it  comesto  rendering  N  U RBS 
objects  they  can  appear  perfectly  smooth. 

Thedifference between  a  polygon  mesh-based 
object  and  a  N  U  RBS  object  isessentially  thesame 
as  that  between  a  2D  bitmap  image  and  a  2D 
vector-based  image.  M  odelling  packages  such  as 
Rhino  useNU  RBS  exclusively,  and  several  other 
packages, for  instance3D  Studio  and  Lightwave, 
can  mixNURBSand  polygon  meshes  in  thesame 
scene.  T  rueSpace4  also  has  support  for  NURBS- 


J£]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Installing  trueSpace  extensions 


p «  -»h — j- 


mm 

|  Any  3D  package  worth  its  salt  has  an 
extension  API  (application 
programming  interface)  that  allows  third 
parties  to  produce  new  tools  and  widgets  to 
add  to  theabilitiesoftheapp  or  cover  any 
holes.  trueSpace  3/SE  is  no  exception,  and 
you  even  get  a  selection  of  very  useful  TSX 
(trueSpace  extension)  plug-ins  free  with  the 
app.  One  of  the  most  useful  istheTrueView 
hierarchy  editor,  shown  here. 


Click  in  thetrueSpace extensions 
Lfl  (TSX)  button  near  the  right-hand  end 
of  the  main  toolbar  when  you  first  install  the 
app,  and  you'll  get  a  boring  boxwith  eight 
blank  squares.  That's  because  the  plug-ins 
aren't  installed  yet.  They're  actually  in  two 
separate  places,  so  you  need  to  dig  them  out 
and  install  them. 


Click  on  thefirst  empty  square  in  the 
C^l  TSX  panel,  and  an  0  pen  trueSpace 
extension  dialog  will  pop  up.  Thefirst  three 
plug-ins  are  ready  to  go  in  trueSpace's  own 
installation  folder,  in  theTSX  subfolder, 
truview.tsxisthe  hierarchy  editor,  particlz.tsx 
allows  you  to  create  animated  particle 
fountains,  and  primplus.tsxisan  automatic 
fractal  terrain  generator.  Select  one  of  these 
and  hit  OK. 


1*1  P  m  .LCK-V 


iu 

H 

EJ 

F 

• 

The  new  plug-in  is  instantly  installed 
in  theTSX  window;  just  click  it  to 

5 

Thesecond  lot  of  plug-ins  aren't 
installed  by  default,  but  are  left  on  the 

6 

activate  it.  Now  install  the  other  two  in  the 
same  way  and  have  a  play.  TrueView  is  pretty 
self-explanatory,  and  the  other  two  have  Help 
files.  Particlez  provides  a  particularly 
entertaining  way  to  waste  an  hour  or  two. 


CD  in  theCOOLPWRS directory.  Double¬ 
click  the  Setup  file  in  the  usual  way.  Go  for 
Typical  installation  -  that  just  installs  all  three 
plug-ins.  OncetheyYeon  your  hard  drive,  you 
still  need  to  install  each  one  in  trueSpace  by 
clicking  on  a  blanksquareof  theTSX  window 
and  navigating  to  the  installation  directory. 


You  should  now  have  a  nice,  fully- 
populated  TSX  window,  which  adds 
considerably  more  functionality  to  your 
software.  The  CoolPowers  plug-ins  are 
LandMass,  similar  to  Primitives  Plus, 

M  ultiplex,  for  animated  object  replication 
and  strange  growth  effects,  and  Wiggledy,  to 
introduce  random  variations  to  the  position 
of  vertices  on  an  object  for  making  things  look 
more  natural. 


typeobjects.Thedownsideisthat  N  U  RBS 
modelling  is  morecomplex,  can  be  unpredictable 
and  takes  a  lot  of  getting  used  to. 

When  creating  3D  model  sphere's  a  fairly 
standard  set  of  tech n i  qu es  and  tool  s  that  al  I 
packages  su  p  po  rt ,  i  n  cl  u  d  i  n  g  t  ru  eSpace  3/  S  E ,  to 
enableyou  to  transform  the  image  in  your  head 
into  an  object  in  your  PC.Thebasicstructureof 
most  models  is  based  on  primitives.Theterm 
p  ri  m  i  t i  ves  refers  to  basi  c  geo  m  et ri  c  sh  apes  su  ch  as 
spheres,  cubes,  cylinders  and  so  on.  M  ost  everyday 


o  bj  ect s  are  basi  cal  I  y  a  box  o  r  a  cyl  i  n  d  er  of  so  m e 
ki  nd,  with  a  few  ki  nks,  twists  and  extra  bits  here 
and  there.  The  extra  bits  are  also  often  based  on  a 
primitive  shape.  So,  just  by  combining  primitives 
you  can  produceasimplemodel  of  just  about 
anything  (seethedesklamp  creation  workshop). 

M  ost  packages  also  havetoolsto  kink,  twist, 
bend  and  squash  these  primitives  into  the 
required  shape. Thesecond  staplemodelling  tool 
istheuseof  Boolean  operations.Theseletyou 
merge  two  objects  into  oneor  subtract  oneshape 


QUICKTIP 


Save  often.  TrueSpace's 
Undo  function  is  rather 
unpredictable,  and  the 
sheer  complexity  of  any  3  D 
package  means  crashes  are 
a  constant  possibility.  Also, 
remember  to  save  with  a 
new  filename  at  each  major 
stage  of  construction. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  1ME 


3D  MODELLING 


3D  MODELLING  >  > 


Basic  operations  and  putting  a  scene  together 


TrueSpace  has  hundreds  of  functions, 
but  it's  easy  to  get  going  and  put  a 

2 

From  the  File  menu  in  the  main 
trueSpace  window,  select  Load 

3 

simplescenetogetherfrom  the  small  libraryof 
pre-built  objects  that  comes  with  theapp.  In 
this  workshop  we'll  just  load  a  few  up,  place 
them  and  see  the  effects  of  changing  lighting 
and  rendering  options,  in  particular  the 
difference  between  normal  rendering  and 
raytracing. 


0  bject.  N  avigate  to  the  installation  folder, 
and  select  the  OBJECTS  folder.  You'll  see 
various  filenames  ending  with  .cob  (Caligari 
Objects).  trueSpace  will  also  import  popular 
file  formats  such  asdxf.  For  now,  load  up  the 
desk.cob  object,  and  then  thedesklamp.cob 
object.  W  ireframe  representations  of  the 
objects  will  appear  in  the  main  workspace,  in 
the  centre,  one  on  top  of  the  other. 


As  well  as  the  main  view,  you  can 
open  separate  left,  right,  front,  top  or 
perspective  views  in  a  small  window. 
trueSpace 3/SEonlyallowsoneextra  view  to 
be  open  at  a  time,  but  that's  not  too  much  of 
a  limitation.  Open  a  new  left  view  of  the  scene 
by  clicking  and  holding  the  icon  at  the  bottom 
right  of  the  screen  -  a  pop-up  list  appears. 
Move  the  pointer  to  New  Left  View  and 
release  the  mouse  button. 


Close  the  small  Top  View  window  and 
turn  your  attention  to  framing  the 

8 

Now  try  rendering  the  sceneto  turn  it 
from  a  wireframe  representation  into 

9 

scene  in  the  main  perspective  view. 

Experiment  with  the  Eye  M  ove  and  Eye  Rotate 
tools  at  the  bottom  right  of  the  main  window 
to  getthefeel  of  moving  round  and  placing 
the  viewpoint.  Try  dragging  with  both  the  left 
and  right  buttons  -  it  affects  different  axes. 
Also  use  the  Zoom  tool  to  get  thetableand 
lamp  to  fill  most  of  theframe. 


something  solid.  There  are  a  few  render 
options  in  the  render  tools  group,  located  at 
the  bottom  right  of  the  screen.  By  default, 
Render  Current  Object  is  selected,  so  left-click 
and  hold  the  icon,  then  select  Render  Scene 
instead.  It'll  take  a  few  seconds  to  render,  but 
won't  look  too  good;  grey  background, 
jagged  edges,  no  shadows.  We  need  to  jazz  it 
up  a  bit. 


First,  add  a  floor  to  the  scene.  To  do 
this,  left-click  and  hold  the  primitives 
creation  tool  at  the  left  of  the  main  toolbar, 
and  select  Add  Plane.  A  small  square  will 
appear  under  thetable.  To  increase  it  in  size, 
select  the  Object  Scaletool,  hold  down  both 
the  mouse  buttons  and  drag  the  mouse.  Keep 
dragging  until  thefloor  is  a  sensible  size. 


QUICKTIP 


D  on't  fall  into  the  trap  of 
making  each  of  your 
models  with  100,000 
polygons.  Think  about  the 
resolution  of  the  final 
image,  and  whether  a 
model  is  likely  to  be 
placed  in  the  scene,  and 
trim  those  faces. 


from  another.  With  Boolean  subtraction, you  can 
useoneshapeasacuttingimplementto  sculpt 
another:  for  instance  you  can  position  along 
cylinder  insidea  cube,  do  a  Boolean  subtraction 
usingthecylinderasacuttingtool  and  you  havea 
solid  cube  with  aholethrough  it. 

N  ot  far  behind  Boolean  operations  on  the 
usefulnessfrontareextrusion  and  sweeping 
tools.Theseletyou  takea2D  shape, often  some 
form  of  curve,  and  useitastheprofilefora3D 
solid  by  sweeping  theshapealong  a  straight  line, 


an  oth  er  cu  rve  or  i  n  a  ci  rcl  e.  t  ru  eSpace  3/  SE 's 
Lathetool  lets  you  sweep  a  shape  thro  ugh  a  circle 
or  arc  -  seethedesklamp  creation  workshop. 

Asidefrom  these  basic  tools,  thereare 
hundreds  of  variations  and  extra  widgets  that 
different  packages  support:  gen  erallythemore 
expensive  the  package  the  greater  the  variety  of 
tools, and  themorecommitted  you  must  beto 
learn  thepackage.Thisisagood  reason  notto 
buy  themost  expen  si  ve  package  if  you 're  just 
starting  out:  thecomplexity  will  put  you  off  for 


EM  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


The  new  view  window  has  a  few 
buttons  of  its  own,  mainly  to  orientate 

5 

Obviously,  the  lamp  needs  to  be  on 
top  of  the  table,  not  stuck  beneath  it. 

6 

the  view.  We  want  to  have  the  scene  centred  in 
the  window  to  start  with,  so  click  the 
window's  Eye  M  ove  button,  left-click  in  the 
window,  and  drag  the  mouse.  Centre thedesk 
and  lamp  objects  in  the  window. 


Click  on  theO  bject  M  ove  icon  at  the  bottom 
left  of  the  main  window.  To  constrain  the 
movement  to  the  vertical  direction,  click  on 
thelargeXand  Z  figures  at  the  bottom  right 
of  the  main  view  window  to  deselect  them. 
Left-click  and  drag  the  lamp  up.  To  position  it 
precisely,  use  the  Eye  Move  and  Zoom  tools  in 
the  Left  View. 


N  ow  change  the  Left  View  window  to 
atop  view  by  clicking  and  holding  the 
View  icon  and  selecting  Top  View.  One  of  the 
ways  to  make3D  scenes  look  a  bit  more 
natural  isto  try  and  ensure  that  objects  aren't 
precisely  placed  centrally  or  in  straight  lines 
with  respect  to  each  other,  so  use  the  Object 
M  ove  tool  to  shift  the  lamp  to  a  natural  place 
on  thedesk. 


1  Now  open  a  new  top  view,  and  zoom 

1  out  until  you  can  seeall  thescene 

11 

N  ow  right-click  on  the  Render  Scene 
button.  The  Render  0  ptions 

12 

lights- they're  thethree  sunburst-type 
wireframes  in  the  scene,  placed  thereby 
default.  Clickon  oneof  thelightsand  the 
Lights  adjustment  dialog  will  appear.  Left- 
click  on  the  bottom  right  button  to  select 
shadow  casting,  then  right-click  on  it  to  bring 
up  the  advanced  shadow  options.  Linder 
ShadowType,  click  Ray.  Do  this  for  the  other 
two  lights. 


dialog  will  appear.  Check  the  Raytraceand 
AntiAlias  boxes. 


Still  in  the  Render  0  ptions  dialog,  click 
the  grey  square  next  to  the  left  of  the 
Background  check  box.  The  Background 
Colour  dialog  appears.  Drag  the  red,  green 
and  blue  sliders  down  to  zero.  Now  close  all 
theextraneousdialogsthatareopen,  and  hit 
the  Render  Scene  button.  It'll  take  a  lot  longer 
to  render  this  time,  but  you  should  be  left 
with  a  scene  not  unlike  the  picture  at  the 
beginning  of  this  workshop. 


life.  Oneof  thebest  examples  of  this  is  3D  Studio 
MAX,whosefunctions,  and  variations  on 
functions,  number  well  into  thethousands. 

Rendering 

Simply  put,  therendering  process  follows 
model  ling  and  scene  creation,  where  your 
finished  sceneor animation  isdrawn  bythe 
computer,  taking  into  account  lighting, 
simulation  of  surf  ace  material  sand  visual  effects 
likefog,  to  producea  properly  shaded,  solid 


image.Thefirst  imagesin  thesecond  and  third 
workshops areexamplesof  rendered  scenes. 

Thephrase'rendering'  can  mean  two  things, 
depending  on  context.  I  n  general  it  meansthe 
final  calculation  and  drawing  of  a  scene,  but  it's 
often  also  used  to  distinguish  between  scenes 
produced  with  or  without  theuseof  raytracing. 

When  a  scene  is  rendered  without  raytracing, 
thecomputer  looks  at  thegeometry  information 
of  al I  theobjects,  polygon  by  polygon.  For  each 
polygon,  it  calculates  the  angle  between  that 


QUICKTIP 


Reduce  rendering  times 
for  quick  previews  by 
turning  off  raytracing  and 
anti-aliasing,  and  reducing 
the  output  resolution. 

An  image  at  1,280  x  1,024 
takes  four  times  as  long 
to  render  as  an  image  at 
640x480. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  Ui 


3D  MODELLING  >  > 


It's  fun  to  bung  scenes  together  from 
ready-made  objects  and  muck  about 

2 

As  you  can  see,  most  of  the  lamp  is 
madefrom  cylinders,  the  exceptions 

3 

rendering  them,  but  modelling  your  own  3D 
objects  and  environments  from  scratch  isfar 
more  rewarding.  M  ost  objects  are  built  by 
assembling  primitives  -  basic  shapes  like 
cylinders  and  cubes.  The  complexity  of  the 
objects  you  can  create  I  ike  this,  with  a  few 
other  manipulations  along  the  way,  is 
surprising.  Here,  we're  creating  our  own 
simple  Anglepoise-type  desk  lamp. 


being  the  base  and  the  lampshade.  The  base 
is  made  by  creating  a  2D  profileshape  and 
using  a  latheoperation  to  turn  it  into  a  solid. 
Start  by  switching  the  main  view  from 
Perspective  to  Top.  Then  select  the  Regular 
Polygon  tool,  which  will  allow  us  to  makea 
2D  circle. 


When  you  select  the  Regular  Polygon 
tool,  you'll  get  a  Poly  M  odes  dialog. 
Increase  the  resolution  up  to  50  points  by 
clicking  the  arrow  button  and  dragging  the 
mouse.  Then  click  on  the  work  area  and  drag 
out  a  circle.  The  exact  size  doesn't  matter, 
since  you  can  scale  it  later. 


To  make  the  curved  rod  that  attaches 
to  the  base,  create  a  small  circle  the 

8 

Assemble  all  the  bits  you've  got  so  far 
into  their  final  places.  Make  use  of 

9 

way  you  did  in  Step  3,  then  use  the  lathe 
control,  but  adjust  the  control  so  that  it  only 
sweeps  through  30  degrees  or  so  of  its  arc. 


left,  front  and  top  views  to  make  sure  you've 
got  everything  correctly  aligned  in  all  three 
directions  -  it's  often  difficult  to  tell  exactly 
where  parts  are  in  3D  space  if  you'reonly 
using  the  main  Perspective  view. 


To  make  the  lampshade,  use  the  Add 
Sphere  tool,  then  hit  the  Smooth 
Quad  Dividebutton  a  coupleof  times  to 
increase  its  resolution.  UsetheCopytool  at 
thefar  left  of  thetoolbar,  and  scalethecopy 
down  slightly.  Then  usetheObject 
Subtraction  tool  to  subtract  the  small  sphere 
from  the  larger,  leaving  a  hollow  ball.  Usea 
cube  and  object  subtraction  to  cut  off  the 
bottom  quarter  of  the  ball,  and  you've  got 
your  lampshade. 


QUICKTIP 


It's  usually  easier  and 
cleaner  to  build  each  model 
in  a  separate  session  of 
your  3D  package,  then  save 
the  objects  out  and  import 
them  all  into  a  new  session 
for  final  scene  arrangement 
and  rendering. 


polygon  and  thelightsin  thescene.Theamount 
of  light  that  a  particular  scenelight  contributes 
to  each  pixel  of  thepolygon  dependssolelyon 
anglebetween  thelight  and  thepolygon,  in 
a  direct  line.  This  is  a  relatively  fast  way  of 
doingthings,  as  you'll  seeifyou  tryrenderinga 
scene  in  trueSpacewith  raytracing  switched  off 
and  then  on.  But  becauseof  thedirect 
mathematical  calculation  ofthelightingof  each 
facet ,  st  an  d  ard  ren  d  eri  n  g  tech  n  i  q  u  es  can 't 
producereflectionson  thesurfaceof  an  object, 


which  can  bean  important  part  of  making  a 
scene  look  realistic. 

To  producereflectionsand  accurate  shadows, 
raytracing  is  used.  It  works  by  tracing  an 
i  m agi  n  ary  I  i  n  e  f o  rward  f  ro  m  t h  e  vi  ewer  i  n to  t h  e 
sceneforeach  pixel  oftheimage.  Wheretheline 
hits  an  object  in  thescene,thecolour  of  that  pixel 
isaltered  accordingly,  and  if  theobject  is  reflective 
theimaginary  ray  bouncesoff  that  object  and 
continues  itsjourney.  If  it  meets  another  reflective 
object,  that  has  to  betaken  i  nto  account,  and  so 


CM  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Select  the  0  bject  Scale  tool  and  use  it 
to  squash  thecircleto  make  an  ellipse. 

5 

Click  on  ournewshapeto  select  it. 

N  ow  select  the  Lathe  tool  from  the 

6 

Use  the  Add  Plane  tool  to  makea  plane, 
position  the  planeso  it  covers  the  bottom  half 
oftheellipsethen  select  thecircleso  it's 
highlighted  in  white.  Select  the  Object 
Subtraction  tool  to  perform  a  Boolean 
subtraction  on  the  circle.  Click  the  planeto 
subtract  it  from  the  ellipse,  leaving  the  left  half 
only.  Do  thesameon  the  lower  half. 


centre  left  of  the  main  too  I  bar.  A  green  and 
blueT-shaped  control  is  overlaid  on  the 
shape.  DragthetopoftheT  so  it  snaps  to  the 
straight  side  of  our  profile  shape.  D  rag  the 
vertical  part  around  a  full  360  degrees,  and 
drag  any  of  the  points  to  increase  the 
resolution.  H  it  the  Lathe  icon  again  to 
perform  the  operation. 


You  should  now  have  a  3D  base, 
albeit  on  its  side.  Hit  theToggle  Grid 
button  on  the  centre  right  of  the  main  toolbar 
and  usetheObject  Rotate  tools  to  turn  it 
round  so  it's  lying  flat.  Now  create  the  other 
two  main  parts  of  the  lamp,  the  crossbeam 
and  the  counterweight,  by  using  the  Add 
Cylinder  tool  and  theObject  Scale  tools,  and 
rotate  them  with  the  grid  switched  on  so 
they're  correctly  aligned. 


10 

For  final  detailing,  try  switching  to 
OpenGL  solid  preview  mode.  Use  the 

11 

We  want  a  trendy  chrome  lamp,  so  we 
need  to  assign  an  appropriate 

12 

Bevel  tool  (in  the  same  group  as  the  Lathe 
tool)  to  takethesharp  edgeoff  the 
counterweight  and  make  it  look  a  touch  more 
realistic.  Also  createanother  cylinder  for  the 
hinge  at  the  join  between  the  crossbeam  and 
the  curved  upright,  and  make  yourself  an 
on/off  switch  with  a  couple  more  cylinders 
and  a  bit  of  judicious  bevelling. 


material  to  its  parts.  H  it  the  M  aterial  Library 
button,  load  up  metals.mdb,  then  right-click 
on  one  of  the  icons  in  theObject  Painting 
group  to  get  material  adjustment  parameters. 
Thetwo  default  chrome  materials  aren't 
actuallyverygood,  so  choose  the  Aluminium 
material  and  increase  its  shininess  slider. 
Select  the  appropriate  object  and  use  the 
Paint  0  bject  tool  to  assign  the  materials. 


Finally,  move  one  of  the  default  scene 
lights  so  it's  insidethe  lampshade 
of  our  lamp.  Set  that  light  to  be  white  or 
yellow.  M  ake  sure  all  lights  are  set  to  cast 
shadows,  and  the  Shadow  Type  is  set  to  Ray. 

C reate  a  floor  and  assign  a  wood  material  to 
it,  then  set  the  Render  0  ptions  for  raytracing 
and  anti-aliasing,  with  the  background  set 
black.  Hit  the  Render  Scene  button  and  Bob's 
your  uncle. 


on.Theresult  isascenewith  shadows  and 
reflections,  which  can  incorporatethingslike 
glass  and  transparent  objects  properly,  but  which 
can  take  far,  far  longer  than  standard  rendering. 

So,  when  you're  putting  together  your  scene 
and  you  need  to  see  roughly  what  it'sgoing  to 
look  like,  keep  the  raytracing  switched  off  and 
only  useit for thefinal  render. Thesamegoes for 
anti-aliasing,  which  can  removethejagged 
appearanceof  angled  edges  but  needsa  lot  of 
calculation  to  do  so. 


The  perseverancefactor 

Packages  I  i  ke  tru  eSpace  are  rel  ati  vel  y  easy  to  get 
to  grips  with  initially, but  3D  modellingand 
renderingcan  beverytime-consumingif you 
wantto  get  reallygood  results. All  3D  packages 
havetheir  quirks,  and  you  need  to  get  used  to 
t  h  ese.  J  u  st  rem  em  ber  yo  u '  re  n  o  1 1  h  e  o  n  I  y  p  erso  n 
to  get  f u  ri  o u  s  at  t h  e  ap paren t  i  n  co n  si  sten  ci  es  i  n  a 
package, and  if  afunction  appearsnotto  work 
it's  probably  becauseyou'vefai  led  to  put  the 
package  i  nto  thecorrect  model  I  i  ng  mode. 


QUICKTIP 


Pay  attention  to  the 
lighting  in  your  scene.  Just 
like  a  real  photo  or  film,  it 
can  make  the  difference 
between  an  average  image 
and  a  great  one. 
Remember,  though,  that 
more  lights  means 
increased  rendering  times. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


3D  MODELLING 


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A  CHIP  IS  A  CHIP 

-  isn't  it?Gordon  Laing  in 

VESTIGATES  THE  DIFFERENCES 

BETWEEN  THE  MAJOR  PROCESSORS  ON  THE  MARKET  AND  EXPLAINS  SOMEOFTHE 
TERMS  AND  TECHNOLOGY  INVOLVED  IN  WHAT  LIES  AT  THE  HEART  OF  A  PC 


PENTIUM,  CELERON,  ATHLON,  DURON  -  We 

all  know  they'rethe brains  behind  your 
PC,  but  what  precisely  are  the  differences 
between  these  and  other  chipsfor  desktop  and 
mobile  systems? 

There  are  perhaps  morex86-compatible 
chips availablenow than  at  anytimein  thepast, 
al  I  feat u  ri  n  g  d  i f f eren t  d esi  gn s  an  d  f eat u  res, 
which  can  makeit  confusing  when  it  comesto 
comparingdi f f eren t  C P U s.  So  we've d eci d e t o 
takean  in-depth  look  at  every  aspect  of  PC- 
compatibleCPUs.On  thedesktop  side  we've  put 
Intel's  Pentium  III  and  Celeron  chipsunderthe 
microscope,  along  with  exami ning  AM  D's  latest 
Athlon  and  Duron  contenders.  We've  also  taken 
a  peak  at  the  new  Cyrix  1 1 1  processor  from  VI A  to 
check  out  whereit  fits  into  theoverall  picture. 

H  owever,  what  makes  a  great  ch  i  p  for 
d  eskto  ps  i  sn 't  n  ecessar  i  lyagoodthingfor 
mobile  environments-  after  all  thelast  thing 
you  want  in  a  notebook  is  a  physically  large 
chip,  consuming  loadsof  precious  battery 
power.TheCPU  manufacturers  are  all  too  aware 


of  these  issues,  and  haveproduced  a  number  of 
cunning  solutions:  so  we've  compared  Intel's 
mobilePentium  III  and  Celeron  processors, 

AM  D'smobileK6-2+and  K6-1 1 1  +,  along  with 
u pstart  Transmeta's  pi oneeri  ng  C  rusoeC  PU . 

But  first  things  first.  What  exactly  is  a  CPU? 
Typically  about  sizeof  a  postage  stamp,  a  CPU  is 
an  integrated  circuit  built  onto  a  small  pieceof 
silicon.  It  consistsof  millionsof  tinytransistors 
connected  byincrediblyfinetracesof 
aluminium  (copper  interconnects  will  be 
increasingly  used  in  thefuture).  Intel's  first 
CPU,  the4004,  was  introduced  in  1971  and 
contained  2,300  transistors,  compared  to  the  I 
latest  Pentium  Ill's 27.1  million  transistors.  | 

AbasicCPU  istypically split  into  seven  ^ 

sections:  Control  Unit,  Arithmetic  Logic  Unit  * 
(ALU),  Registers,  Decode  Unit,  Prefetch  Unit,  § 
Bus  Interface,  and  theCache memory,  which  is  < 
normally  split  evenly  between  storing  | 

instructionsand  data.  ^ 

Cacheisa  very  small  amount  of  high-speed  | 

memory,  located  in  or  extremely  near  the  CPU  - 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  147 


X86  CHIPS  >  > 


X86  CHIPS  >  > 


MostCPUsare 
currently  made  using 
the  0.18 micron  process 


itself.  It  stores  the  most  recently  accessed 
portionsof  main  system  RAM  for  quick  and 
easy  ref  eren  ce.  W  h  en  t  h  e  C  P  U  i  s  to  I  d  to  fetch 
data  or  an  instruction,  it  always  checks  the 
cachefirstto  see  if  it's  in  there.  If  not,thedata 
must  be  fetched  from  the  main  memory  instead, 
which  is  a  much  slower  process. 

Whileall  thechi ps  herediffer  in  a  number  of 
ways,  thereisonesignificant  trait  that  they  all 
share-  compatibility  with  I  ntel's  x86 
instruction  set.  Intel  developed  thisto  allow 
developersto  program  itsoriginal  8086 CPU 
back  in  1978.  In  1982,  Intel  introduced  its 
80286 16bit  CPU,  which  was thefirst  that  could 
run  all  the  software  written  for  its  predecessor. 
Later  camethefaster  32bit  80386, 80486  and 
Pentium  product  lines,  which  in  theory  could 
run  any  software  written  forthex86 
instruction  set.  This  level  of  backward 
compatibilityisthemain  reason  thelBM 
PC  platform  dominates thedesktop 
computingworld. 

AM  D 's  C  PU  s  arex86-compati  bl  e,  as  are 
VI  A's  Cyrix  1 1 1  and  T ran smeta's  Crusoe 
processors,  which  meansthey'll  all,  in 
theory,  happily  run  Windows  and  its 
multitudeof  applications.  Different 
internal  support  for  additional  instructions,  not 
to  mention  themeans  by  which  x86  instructions 
are  decoded,  however,  meansthey'll  all  execute 
software  with  varying  performance. 


Smaller  is  better 

M  ost  current  desktop  C  PU  s  are  made  usi  ng  a 
0.18micron  process.  This  number  refers  to  the 
distance  between  adjacent  components  on  the 
silicon  wafer,  with  0.18micron  being  about  500 
times  thinner  than  a  human  hair. 

A  finer  manufacturing  process  allows  more 
transistorsto  beplaced  in  thesamearea, 
enabling  morecomplexchip  designs,  or 
physically  smaller  CPU  diesizes.  Smaller  die 
sizesmeansmoreCPUsproduced  on  anyone 


silicon  wafer,  which  means  a  greater  yield  and 
potential  ly  lower  costs  or  greater  profits  for  the 
manufacturer.  With  shorter  distances  between 
thetransistors,  theC  PU  requi  res  less  power  too, 
which  isgreat  news,  particularly  in  mobile 
environments.  Theshorter  distances  also  allow 
theCPU  to  be  clocked  at  higher  speeds. 

Desktop  CPUs 

N  ow  thetheory's  out  of  the  way  it's  ti  meto 
consider  the  products  vying  to  bethe  heart  of 
yourdesktop  PC.Thecontenderswe'll  cover  are 
Intel's  Pentium  1 1 1  and  Celeron,  AM  D'sAthlon 
and  D  uron,  and  VI  A's  Cyrix  III.  Thesearetheir 
official  names,  butlikeall  products,  they've  all 
gonethrough  long  development  cycles  with 
onlycodenamesto  identifythem. 

Thecoreof  thefirst  Pentium  1 1  Is  was 
codenamed  Katmai,  whilethecoreused  to  make 
all  new  Pentium  1 1 1 s and  Celerons  is  nicknamed 
Coppermine.  AM  D'slatest  Athlon  with  on-die 
Level  2  cache(explained  below)  was  referred  to 
asThunderbird,  whilethe new  Duron  was 
previously  known  as  Spitfire. 

Finally,  VI  A's  Cyrix  1 1 1  was  at  first  thought  to 
bethechip  codenamed  Joshua,  but  thisdesign 
wasdumped  in  favourof  theSamuel, developed 
by  VI  A's  Centaur  Team  in  Austin  Texas.  Before 
wrapping  up  thecodenames,  it's  worth 
mentioning  I  ntel's  forthcoming  Willamette 
CPU,  which  was  recently  officially  branded  as 
thePentium  4. 

Intel  Pentium  III 

Launched  at  450M  Hz  in  mid-1999,  thePentium 
III  is  the  latest  in  I  ntel's  P6  family  that  started 
with  theoriginal  Pentium  Pro  in  1995.  M  odels 
between  450  and  600M  Hz  were  manufactured 
usinga0.25micron  process  and  used  a  brand 
new  Katmai  coredesign,  whilecurrent  models 
running  faster  than  600M  Hz  employ  a  finer 
0.18micron  process,  along  with  theenhanced 
Copperminecoredesign.  Notethat  wheretwo 
Pentium  Ills  are  avail  able  at  thesamespeed,  the 
newer  0.18micron  Copperminemodelsare 
labelled  with  an  E,  for  enhanced  process. 

Pentium  1 1 1  'sarecurrently  availablefrom 
667  to  1,000M  Hz,  although  models  up  to 
1,133M  Hz  should  beavailablebythetimeyou 
read  thisand  thePentium  4  won't  betoo  far 
behind,  speeding  at  1,300  and  1,400M  Hz.  Intel 
has  already  begun  building  a  chip  fab  in  Ireland 
designed  fora0.13micron  process,  although  it's 
currently  unknown  whether  thiswill  beused 
onlyfor  newCPUsoralso  to  extend  thelifeof 
thePentium  III  against  stiff  competition  from 
AM  D'sAthlon. 

Intel  Celeron 

Intel  first  introduced  theCeleron  in  early  1998 
at  266  and  300M  H  z.  1 1  may  have  employed  the 
Pentium  M's  Deschutes  core,  but  in  order  to 
keep  costs  down,  Intel  removed  its  Level  2  cache 


JR]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


chips.  This  impacted  performanceso 
significantly  that  a  new  core,  M  endocino,  was 
developed  a  few  months  later,  incorporating 
128KB  of  Level  2  cache-  see  later. 

M  endocino  Cel erons using  a  0.25micron 
process  are  still  avail  able  up  to  533M  Hz,  while 
faster  models  running  at  533M  Hz  and  above 
employ thesame0.18micron  Copperminecore 
as  current  Pentium  1 1 1  s,  however,  there  are 
d  i  f f eren  ces  i  n  each  e  an  d  f  ro  n  t-si  d  e  b u  s  ( F  S  B ) , 
which  well  discuss  later.  Notethe533M  Hz 
Celeron  employing  the  newer  core  is  label  led 
with  an  A.CoppermineCeleronsarecurrently 
availableup  to  700M  Hz,  with  speedsupto 
800M  Hz  expected  bythenewyear. 

AMD  Athlon 

Codenamed  K7and  launched  last  August  with 
initial  chips  clocked  at  600M  Hz,theAthlon 
proved  AM  D  could  competewith  Intel  atthehigh 
end.  Early  models  weremadewith  a  0.25micron 
process,  with  later  ones  switchingto  0.18micron. 

AtthebeginningofJunethisyear,AM  D 
launched  Athlons based  on  itsnewThunderbird 
core,  which  at  last  allowed  it  to  catch  up  with 
the  latest  architecture  innovations  Intel  had 
been  enjoying  with  its  own  enhanced 
Copperminecore. 

Thunderbird  Athlons  using  a  0.18micron 
process  are  cu rrentl y  avai  I abl  ef rom  700  to 
1,000M  H  z  i n  50M  H  z  i ncrements,  although 
note  that  those  based  on  the  old  K7  core  are  also 
availableatthesamespeeds-  seethesection  on 
packaging  and  cachefor  moredetails.  AM  D  is 


likelyto  continuematchingthe 
Pentium  I  M's  clock  speeds  with  its 
Athlon,  although  next  year  should 
also  seetheintroduction  of  AM  D's 
Sledgehammer  CPU  which  extends 
thex86  instruction  set  to  64bit. 

AMD  Duron 

AM  D  also  launched  itsDuron  CPU  in  Junethis 
year.  Produced  usinga0.18micron  process,  the 
D  u  ro  n  i  s  cu  rren tl  y  avai  I  abl  e  at  600, 650, 700 
and  750M  H  z  flavours.  Pitched  somewhere 
performance-wise  between  Intel'sCeleron  and 
Pentium  1 1 1  CPUs,  but  priced  at  an  affordable 
level  fortheentry/mid-level  market,  the  Duron 
promisesto  bean  exciting  player.  So  far  it  has 
led  theCeleron  in  clock  speeds,  and  you  can  be 
sureAM  D  will  tryto  continuethistrend. 

VIA  Cyrix  II I 

Attheannual  Computex show  in  Taiwan  this 
June,  VIA  announced  its  Cyrix  1 1 1  CPU.  VIA 
purchased  Cyrix  from  National  Semiconductor 
in Junelast year, then  acquired  IDT'sCentaur 
processor  desi gn  su bsi d i ary  sh o rtl y  afterwards. 
Whileusingthestronger  Cyrix  brand  namefor 
this  new  CPU,  thedesign  is  from  thesameteam 
that  madethelDT  WinChip. 

Produced  usinga0.18micron  process,  initial 
versions  of  theCyrix  1 1 1  CPU  are  avai  I  abl  eat  500, 
533  and  600M  H  z.  Speeds  of  733M  H  z  and  above 
arebelieved  to  besupplied  bytheforthcoming 
enhanced  Samuel  2  core,  using  a  0.15micron 
process.  Speeds  up  to  800M  H  z  are  expected  by 


Chipsets  -  the  heart  of  the  matter 


hilemanypeople 
believe theCPU  isthe 
brains  behind  their  PC,  it 
would  be  nothing  without  its 
accompanying  chipset,  which 
really  forms  the  heart  of  the 
operation.  It's thechipset that 
co-ordinates  activity  between 
theCPU,  RAM  andthefront- 
sidebus,  which  in  turn 
connects  to  other  system 
buses  including  PCI.  It's  also 
the  chipset  that  normally 
provides  features  likean  IDE 
controller  for  your  drives, 
along  with  support  for  the 
AGP  graphics  bus  and  specific 
types  of  memory. 

Most  CPU  manufacturers 
develop  chipsets  to  match  a 
series  of  their  processors,  but 
you  don't  always  have  to  use 
them.  The  best  known  third- 
party  chipset  supplier  is  VIA, 


which  makes  a  number  of 
solutionsfor  both  Intel  and 
AMD  platforms.  The  chipset  is 
an  integral  part  of  the  mother¬ 
board  and,  unlikeaCPU  or 
card,  cannot  be  swapped  fora 
new  one.  If  you  fancythe 
enhanced  features  of  a  new 
chipset,  it'stimeto  change  the 
entire  motherboard. 

M  ost  chipsets  come  in  two 
sections,  with  the  first  dealing 
directly  with  theCPU  and 
system  memory  over  the  FSB 
and  optionally  supplying  a 
faster  AGP  graphics  bus.  The 
second  tags  on  to  the  first 
section  across thePCI  bus, 
supplying  support  for  USB  and 
IDE  drives,  along  with  optional 
further  support  for  the  old  ISA 
bus  and  a  variety  of  legacy 
ports.  In  VIA  and  older  Intel 
chipsets,  these  two  halves  were 


known  as  the 
Northbridgeand 
Southbridge 
components. 

Intel's  800 
series  chipsets 
use  an 

alternative  hub 
architecture.  The 
main  memory 
controller  hub  takes  care  of 
theCPU,  AGP  and  memory, 
leaving  the  I/O  controller  hub 
to  handle  PCI,  IDE  and  USB. 

Intel's  latest  815  chipset 
supports  PC133  SDRAM, 
AGP4X,  whilethe  Eversion 
additionally  offers 
UltraDM  A100,  another  pair  of 
USB  ports,  and  internal 
support  for  optional  Ethernet 
and  audio  ports.  Comparethis 
with  the  aging  BX  chipset  that, 
despite  support  foronly 


PC100  memory,  AGP2X  and 
UltraDM  A33,  still  boasts 
excellent  overall  performance. 

VIA  has  forthcoming 
chipsets  for  both  Intel  and 
AM  D  platforms,  supporting 
UltraDM  A100,  AGP4Xand 
uniquely  266M  HzDDR 
SDRAM .  Contrary  to  its 
previous  decision,  Intel  has 
now  said  its  mid-  to  high-end 
chipsets  for  Pentium  4 
processors  will  support  PC133 
as  well  as  RDRAM  memory. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


X86  CHIPS 


X86  CHIPS  >  > 


the  end  of  theyear,  with  1G  H  z  parts  cl  ai  med  to 
befollowing  shortly  after. 

Diesizes,  slots  and  sockets 

The0.18micron  Copperminecoreused  on  the 
latest  Pentium  Ills  and  Celeronsisthesame, 
consisting  of  27.1  million  transistors,  and  adie 
sizemeasuring  106mm  square.  The0.18micron 
Thunderbird  Athlon  hasa  120mm  squaredie, 
consistingof  around  37  million  transistors. The 
Duron  hasa  100mm  squaredie,  whiletheVIA 
Cyrix  I II  dieisonly76mm  square.Thesmaller 
thediesize,themorechipsyou  can  fit  on  a 
singlesilicon  wafer  during  manufacture.  Every 
component  on  thedierunsatthecoreprocessor 
speed,  wh i ch  i s  why  it's  preferabl e to 
incorporateall  thecache  memory  on-die.  About 
one-third  of  thedieareaon  thelatest  Pentium 
Ills  is  occupied  by  its  cache  memory. 

Whilethedieitself  may  besmaller than  a 
postage  stamp,  it  must  bedelivered  in  a  larger 
package  for  desktop  systems,  allowing  easy 
accessto  its  hundreds  of  electrical  contacts. 

T  oday's  processors  are  typical  ly  del  ivered  i  n 
two  different  physical  packages:  thosethat  fit 
into  square  sockets  and  those  which  slideinto 
slots.  Whilealmost  all  CPUs  started  life  in 
socketed  form  factors,  Intel  developed  its 
slotted  cartridgeforthePentium  II  processor. 

This  allowed  Intel  to 
employ  a  faster 
interface  between 
theCPU  and  its 
external  Level  2 
cache  chips,  then 
popthewholelot 
intoachunky 
cartridge.  This 
Slot  1  packaging 
and  interface 
was  used  on  all 
Pentium  Ms, 

theoriginal  Celeronsand 
isstill  availablefor  all  speedsof  the 
Pentium  III.  AM  D  also  used  a  similar 
cartridge  design  for  its  Athlon  CPU, 
and  whiletheconnector  isthesame 
si ze as  I  n tel 's  Slot  1,  it  is  el ectri cal  I y 
incompatible;  AM  D  callsthis  Slot  A. 

With  thelater  M  endocino 
Celeron  core,  Intel  squeezed  128KB 
of  Level  2  cacheonto  theactual  die 
itself,  and  dumped  theslotted 
cartridgefor  a  Plastic  Pin  Grid  Array 
(PPGA)  design,  which  fitted  into  a  370-pin 
motherboard  socket,  appropriately  called 
Socket370. 

With  the0.18micron  Coppermine  process, 
Intel  could  also  integratethePentium  Ill's 
larger  Level  2  caches  onto  theactual  die,  again 
making  the  large  cartridges  redundant.  Intel 
stuck  with  a  370-pin  socket  for  its  Pentium  Ills, 
but  employed  a  Flip-Chip  Pin  Grid  Array(FC- 


PGA)  design  rather  than  theolder  PPGA.  The 
Flip  Chips  placethe processor  diefacing 
upwardsto  makedirect  contact  with  the 
heatsink,  compared  to  PPGA  packages  that  face 
down.  WhilePPGA  processors  work  with  new 
FC-PGA  motherboards,  you  can't  usean  FC- 
PGACPU  in  an  old  PPGA  system. 

Intel's  first  FC-PGA  Pentium  III  ran  at 
500M  FI  z,  and  sincethen  Intel  has  released  all 
Pentium  III  speeds  in  both  FC-PGA  and  Slot  1 
packages  -  apart  from  the  1G  Hz  Pentium  III, 
which  for  now  is  Slot  1  only.  Celeronsfrom  the 
533A  upwardsalso  usetheFC-PGA  design. 

AM  D  has  also  nowdumped  its  Slot  Aform 
facto r,  an  d  su  p p I  i  es  al  I  D  u  ro  n  s  an  d 
Thunderbird  Athlonsin  itsnew 462-pin  PGA 
Socket  A  design;  whilesomeSlot  A 
Thunderbirds  were  m  ad  e,  t  h  ese  were  f  o  r  ear  I  y 
tests  and  not  for  sale.  Also,  remember  that 
Socket  A  isnot  compatiblewith  Socket  370. 

TheVI  A  Cyrix  1 1 1  uses  a  Socket  370  design, 
which  issaidto  work  in  most  Socket  370 
motherboards,  although  a  BIOS  updatewill 
normallybe  required. 

Dual -CPU  support 

In  theory  all  Pentium  Ills  support  dual-CPU 
configurations,  but  in  practice,  only  those 
officially  certified  by  Intel  will  work- this 
excludes someearlier  FC-PGA  model s.The 
Celeron  does  not  officially  support  dual -CPU 
configurations,  although  many  enthusiasts 
have  built  working  systems.  AM  D's  Athlon 
supportsdual  systems, although  wehavenever 
tested  one.TheDuron  isnot  listed  as 
supporting  dual  configurations,  but  likethe 
Celeron  it  may  be  persuaded  to  in  thefuture. 
TheCyrix  1 1 1  specification  has  no  mention  of 
dual-CPU  support. 

Front-si  debus 

Thesystem  buscarriesall  thetraffic between  the 
CPU  and  its  chipset,  and  in  many  cases  also  the 
memory-  see  box  later.  Also  known  asthefront- 
sidebus  (FSB),  it  can  havea  huge  impact  on 
overal  I  system  performance.  After  al  I ,  i t 
determines  the  speed  at  which  data  and 
instructions  get  in  and  out  of  theCPU . 

In  order  of  desktop  FSB  performance,  the 
slowest  istheCeleron  that  runsat  66M  Hz.  Next 
up  arethePentium  III  and  Cyrix  1 1 1,  which  both 
havemodelsrunningat  100  or  133M  Hz 
externally.  Intel's  forthcoming  Pentium  4  usesa 
400M  H  z  FSB  using  quad-pumped  technology 
similar  to  AGP  4X. 

AM  D  cunningly  licensed  theEV6bus 
protocol  of  thehigh-end  Alpha  platform, 
origi  nal  ly  developed  by  Digital,  which  isnow 
owned  by  Compaq.  While  actually  running  at 
100M  Hz,thisbustransfersdataon  both  the 
rising  and  falling  edgesof  each  clock  pulse, 
effectively  del  ivering200M  Hz  'doubledata  rate' 
(DDR)  performance  between  theCPU  and  its 


|J  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


chipset. This 200M  H z  FSB  isemployed  bythe 
Athlon,  and  impressively  also  theDuron 
despite  its  cheaper  price. 

Cache 

Most  CPUs  feature  both  Level  land  Level  2 
cachealongwith  main  system  memory,  with 
each  storage typetraditionally  getting  bigger 
but  slower  respectively.  When  theCPU  needsto 
get  hold  of  data,  it  looks  first  in  the  Level  1 
cache,  then  browses  the  Level  2  cache,  after 
which  it  searches  main  memory.  Clearly  the 
sooner  theCPU  can  gettheinformation, 
thefaster  it  can  act  on  it,  but  space  in  the 
caches  isso  restricted  that  only  themost 
frequently  accessed  data  isstored  there.  Note 
that  Level  lcacheis  normally  always  split 
equally  between  data  and  instructions. 

Level  1  cache  has  always  been  built  into  the 
CPU  dieitself, and  asaconsequencerunsatthe 
samespeed  as  theCPU.  Level  2  cacheis 
normally  bigger,  but  in  theold  days  was 
accessed  over therelativelyslow system  bus. 
With  thePentium  II,  Intel  developed  anew 
faster  interface  to  its  Level  2  cache,  running  at 
half  thespeed  of  theactual  processor. Thefirst 
Pentium  III  processors  shared  thisdesign,  with 
32KB  of  Level  1  cacherunning  at  full-speed,  and 
512KB  of  Level  2  cacherunning  at  half-speed 
over  a  64bit  interface. 

TheM  endocino  Celeronsalso featured  32KB 
of  Level  1  cache,  but  integrated  their  128KB 
Level  2  cacheon  thedie,  thereby  running  both 
atthesamespeed  as  theCPU.  With  the 
Coppermine  process,  Intel  also  integrated  the 
Pentium  I  M's  Level  2cacheon-die,  but  halved  its 
sizefrom  512KB  to  256KB.  As  mentioned 
below,  though,  Coppermine'son-die256KB 
Level  2  cache  boasts  a  wider  256bit  interface 
that,  along  with  matching  theCPU's  core  speed, 
makes  it  faster  than  the512KB  half-speed  of 
older  Katmai  Pentium  Ills.  Intel  callsthis 
Advanced  T  ransfer  Cache. 

AM  D'sAthlon  impressively  has  128KB  of 
Level  1  cache- four  timestheCeleron  and 
Pentium  III.  Earlier  cartridge-based  K7  Athlons 
had  512KB  of  off-die  Level  2  cache,  but  in  some 
cases  ru  n  n  i  n g  as  si  ow  as  o n e-t h  i  rd  t h  e  speed  of 
themain  CPU.TherecentThunderbird  core 
addressed  this,  with  256KB  of  Level  2  cache 
runningfull-speed  on-die,  matching  the 
CopperminePentium  III. 

The  Duron,  too,  impressively  boasts  128KB 
of  Level  1  cache,  but  hasonly  64KB  of  Level  2 
cache,  albeit  also  on-die.  TheCyrix  1 1 1  also  has 
128KB  of  Level  1  cache,  but  unforgivably  has  no 
Level  2  cache.  I  n  a  move  that  mirrors  I  n  tel 's 
initial  Celeron  performancedisaster,  VIA  has 
already  stated  that  theforthcoming  Samuel  2 
processor  will  featureon-die  Level  2  cache. 

With  both  Level  1  and  Level  2  caches  now 
runningfull-speed  on  thediesof  most  CPUs, 
why  not  stick  them  together  into  a  unified 


mm 


cache?  The  answer  is 
that  by  keepi ng  them  separate,  they 
can  independentlyorganiseand  address  their 
data  in  what  thechip  designer  believes  is  the 
m  o  st  ef  f  ec  t  i  ve  m  a  n  n  er . 

WhileAMD  and  VIA  boast  128KB  of  Level  1 
compared  to  Intel's  32KB,  Intel  argues  that  a 
cachethat's  four  times  larger  takes  four  times 
longer  to  search,  and  hence  whilestoring  more 
instructions,  isslowerto  respond.  AM  D, 
however,  believes  that  32KB  doesn't  makesense 
with  today'sfiner  manufacturing  processes. 

Then  there's  the  Level  2  cache  interface,  which 
with  Intel  CoppermineCPUsis256bit compared 
to  64bit  on  AM  D'snewAthlonsand  Durons. 
Intelchampionsitsfour-times  faster  i  n  t  erf  ace, 
whileAM  D  counters  that  with  a  four-times  larger 
Level  1  cachein  thefirst  place,  theslower 
interface  to  its  Level  2  isn't  that  big  an  issue. 

Attheend  of  theday  the  bench  marks  we  run 
in  grouptestsand  reviews  reveal  the  differences 
to  end  users,  but  bear  all  oftheabovein  mind 
when  themarketing  peopletakean  over¬ 
simplified  approach,  add  up  all  their  cacheand 
present  a  si nglenumber  for  comparison. 

Extra  instructions 

TheCPUscovered  in  this  feature  may  be 
descri  bed  as x86-compati  bl e,  but  I  ntel 's  ori gi  n al 
instruction  set  has  seen  many  enhancements 
over  the  years.  N  otabl  e  was  I  n  tel's  add  i  t  i  o  n  of  57 
new  multimedia  i  nstructions  cal  led  MMX, 
debuting  on  thel66M  Hz  M  MX  Pentium,  and 
now  incorporated  in  every  I  ntel  CPU.  AM  D  was 
quick  to  respond  adding  itsown  set  of  21 
i  nstructions  cal  led  3DNow!  Theideaisthat 
software  d  evel  o  pers  make  u  se  of  th  ese  ext  ra 
instructionsto  speed  up  processing  if  a  suitable 
MMX  or  3D  Now!  CPU  is  present.  Today  almost 
every  OS  and  application,  not  to  mention  most 
grap h  i  cs  card  d  ri  vers,  m ake  cal  I  s  to  t h  ese 
extended  instruction  sets  for  improved 
multimedia  performance. 

With  thePentium  III,  Intel  added  Katmai 
N  ew  I  nstructions  (KN I ).  Officially  now  branded 
asSSE,or  Internet  Streaming  SIM  D  Extensions, 
these70newinstructionscan  speed  up  speech 


. 


Systemax'sD650  RV 
Pro  uses  a  Duron 
processor,  which  boasts 
a  200MHz  FSB  and 
128KB  of  Level  1  cache 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


X86  CHIPS 


X86  CHIPS  >  > 


paiMiJvr'W 


recognition,  multimedia  streaming,  and  3D 
applications.  SIM  D  standsfor  Single 
Instruction  M  ultipleData. 

All  Pentium  1 1 1  s  and  Celeronsfrom 
the533AonwardsfeatureSSE  along 
with theoriginal  MMX  instructions; 
theforthcoming  Pentium  4  boasts  no 
fewer  than  144  new  instructions  in 
addition  to  SSE  and  MMX. 

Athlon  and  Duron  CPUsnow 
i  feature  Enhanced  3D  Now!  which 
I  addsafurther  24instructionsonto 
*  theoriginal  set,  as  well  assupport- 
ing  M  M  X.  TheCyrix  1 1 1  supports 
both  MMX  and  3D  N  ow!  but  it's  unknown 
whether  or  not  it'stheenhanced  version. 

Wherean  application  supports,  say,  only 
SSE,thereisabigperformancedifference 
between  Intel  and  AM  D  CPUs  otherwise 
running  at  thesameclock  speed. 


MobileCPUs 

D  esktop  C  PU  s  are  great  consu  mers  of  power. 
Intel's  Coppermine  Pentium  lllsconsumeup  to 
29w.Theoriginal  Celeronsconsumed  up  to  28w, 
whilenew  models  with  Copperminecores 
currently  max  at  around  18w.  AM  D'sAthlons 
and  Duronsareparticularly  hungry,  said  to 
consumeasmuch  as twicetheir  Intel  counter¬ 
parts  under  maximum  conditions.  VI  A's 
Cyrix  1 1 1  claimsto  consumeonly  lOwin 
'full  operation  mode',  which  if  directly 
comparableto  thefigures  above,  means  it 
co u  I  d  en j  oy  a  greater  su  ccess  i  n  m o b i  I  e  rat h  er 
than  desktop  environments. 

Whileyou  could  fit  any  of  theaboveinto  a 
notebook,  and  indeed  several  manufacturers  do, 
therearemoreideal  solutions. 


Power  saving 

It's  possible  to  savehalf  the  power  by  halving 
thespeed  of  yourCPU, although  thisof  course 
al  so  h  al  ves  yo  u  r  perf  o  rm  an  ce.  S  i  n  ce  power  i  s 
also  proportional  to  thesquareof  voltage 
though,  a  small  volt  age  drop  can  makeabig 
saving  in  power  consumption. 

Intel's  SpeedStep  technology  does  this,  and 
can  reduce  power  consumption  by  as  much  as 
40  per  cent  wh i  I e  mai  ntai  n i  ng  80  per  cent  of  the 
chip  performance.  Better  still,  it  can  makethis 
voltage  switch  almost  instantly  whilerunning 
applications  with  no  need  for  a  system  restart. 

SpeedStep  is availableon  MobilePentium 
1 1 1  s  runni  ng  at  750, 700, 650  and  600M  Hz, and 
allows  them  to  drop  from  1.6vto  1.35v.  In  this 
battery-saving  mode,  the  750  reduces  to 
600M  Hz,the700to  550M  Hz,  whileboth  the 
650  and  600  drop  to  500M  H  z.  M  obilePentium 
1 1 1  s  also  feature  SSE,  256KB  on-dieLevel  2 
cache,  100M  Hz  FSB  and  aremadewith  a 
0.18micron  process. 

Intel  does  not  currently  incorporate 
SpeedStep  into  itsM  obileCelerons,  but 
otherwise  these  cheaper  chips  bear  many 
resemblances  to  the  M  obilePentium  Ills. 

M  obileCelerons  running  between  450  and 
650M  Hzaremadeusinga0.18micron  process, 
run  at  1.6v,  feature  128KB  on-die  Level  2  cache, 
support  SSE  and,  interestingly,  a  100M  H  z  FSB, 
compared  to  the66M  H  z  of  desktop  Celerons. 
Additional  400  and  500M  H z  low-voltage  1.35v 
model  s  are  al  so  avai  lable.  All  of  Intel'scu  rrent 
mobileCPUsaresupplied  in  compact  BGA-2 
(Ball  Grid  Array)  and  M  icro-PGA2  packages  that 
areaboutthesizeof  a  postage  stamp,  including 
motherboard  connections. 

AM  D  has  recently  announced  itsown  power- 


M  emories  are  made  of  this 


ThedominantPC  memory 
technologytodayuses 
SDRAM .  Previously,  Dynamic 
Random  Access  M  emory  was 
rated  by  an  access  time  of 
nanoseconds,  but  as  front-side 
bus  speeds  approached 
66M  Hz,  a  new  memory 
technology  was  required  to 
address  latency  issues.  By 
employing  Synchronous 
Control,  DRAM  could 
exchange  data  with  the  CPU  in 
time  with  the  system  bus. 
SDRAM  was  therefore 
measured  in  M  Hz,  with  the 
first  flavours  matching  the 
dominant  FSB  speed  at  the 
time  of  66M  Hz. 

As  FSB  speeds  increased, 


SDRAM  followed,  with  100 
and  now  133M  H  z  parts  -  these 
are  also  commonly  known  as 
PCIOOand  PC133.The 
SDRAM  story  doesn't  stop  at 
133M  Hzthough.  DoubleData 
Rate(DDR)  technologyallows 
data  to  be  delivered  on  both 
the  rising  and  falling  edges  of  a 
clock  pulse.  Already  doubling 
the  memory  performanceof 
many  graphics  cards,  not  to 
mention  the  Alpha  EV6  FSB 
used  on  Athlon  and  Duron 
systems,  DDR  is  about  to  take 
SDRAM  to  266MHz- VIA  will 
have  supporting  chipsets  later 
this  year. 

Intel,  however,  favours  a 
relatively  new  type  of  memory 


called  RDRAM ,  rated  at  600, 
700  and  800MHz.  RDRAM 
actually  employs  DDR 
technology,  so  the  clocks  only 
go  at  half  these  speeds,  apart 
from  the  700M  Hz  parts  which 
are  actually  driven  bya 
356MHzclock.  RDRAM  is 
claimed  to  have  superior 
performance  in  environments 
where  multiple  tasks  are  taking 
place,  which  Intel  says 
matches  our  average  desktop 
experience.  However  in  our 
admittedly  single-tasked 
benchmarks,  there's  little 
difference  between  RDRAM 
and  SDRAM. 

Since  its  release  late  last 
year,  RDRAM  has  consistently 


cost  two  to  three  times  that  of 
SDRAM  per  megabyte.  Fora 
short  time,  Intel  produced  a 
M  emoryTranslator  H  ub  chip 
which  allowed  its  RDRAM - 
preferring  820  chipset  to  talk 
to  PC  100 SDRAM,  but 
recently  withdrew  itdueto 
technical  problems.  Intel  is 
well  known  for  its  strong 
support  for  RDRAM,  but 
nevertheless  has  reluctantly 
announced  that  there  will  bea 
P4  chipset  supporting  PC133. 
However,  even  iftheseareonly 
manufactured  in  small 
quantities,  support  from  the 
Taiwanese  and  VIA  in 
particular  will  see  SDRAM 
enjoying  a  longer  life. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


T ransmeta's  TM  3120  is  ideal  for  low- power  devices  like  webpads 


saving  technology,  called  PowerNow!,  which  is 
availableon  its  latest  0.18micron  MobileK6-2+ 
and  K6-lll+processors.  Usingthesametheory 
behind  SpeedStep,  PowerN  ow!  features  not  two 
states,  but  adjusts thevoltage between  1.4  and 
2vdependingon  thedemandsof  theprocessor. 

Both  chips  support  3D  Now!  andalOOM  Hz 
FSB.TheK6-2+isavailableupto  550M  Hz,  has 
64KB  of  Level  1  and  128KB  of  Level  2  cache.  The 
K6-1 1 1  +is  available  up  to  500M  H  z,  but  on  top  of 
its  64KB  of  Level  1  cache,  has  a  larger  256KB  on- 
die  Level  2  cache,  and  support  for  off-chip  Level 
3  cacheup  to  1M  B.  Reduced  voltagemobile 
versions  of  theAthlon  and  Duron  areexpected 
bytheend  of  thisyear. 

T  ransmeta  Crusoe 

WhileSpeedStep  and  PowerNow!  are 
undeniably  cunning  solutions,  they  are 
essentiallyjustthesameold  desktop  CPUs 
modified  to  beslightly  moremobile-friendly. 
Transmeta  has  a  completely  different  mobile 
strategy  with  its  innovative  new  Crusoe  I  ineof 
processors,  designed  from  theground  up  for 
low-power  environments. 

Rather  than  implementing  an  entirex86 
processor  in  hardware,  theCrusoeemploys a 
simpleVLIW  (Very  Long  Instruction  Word) 
enginewith  an  instruction  set  that  bears  no 
resemblanceto  thex86  instruction  set.  A 
surrounding  CodeMorphingsoftwarelayer 
actual  I  y  takes  x86  instructionsand  translates 
them  into  thenativeinstruction  set  of  the 
VLIW  hardware. 

Thisapproach  eliminates theneed  for 
mil  lions  of  transistors,  producing  a  smaller, 
faster  an  d  I  ess  power-h  u  n  gry  co  re.  Si  n  ce  t h  e 
hardwaredoesn't  haveto  natively  support  the 
agei ng  x86  i  nstruction  set,  T ransmeta's  chip 
engineers  can  makeuseof  the  latest  architecture 
designs.  In  addition, theCodeM  orphing  layer 


can  be  independently  evolved  to 
support  new  x86  extensions,  or 
even  entirely  different 
instruction  sets  altogether. 

T  ransmeta's  first  Crusoe 
CPUsaretheTM  3120  and 
TM  5400.  Using  a  0.22micron 
process,  theTM  3120  features 
96KB  of  Level  1  cacheand  a  die 
sizeof  only  77mm  squared.  The 
TM  5400  uses  a  0.18micron 
process,  incorporates  128KB  of 
Level  1  and  256KB  of  Level  2  on- 
diecaches,  in  a  73mm  squared 
diesize; the M obi le Pentium  III 
isa  106mm  squared  die. 

T  ransmeta  hasfamously 
shown  heat  results  of  itsTM  5400 
and  Intel's  Mobile  Pentium  III 
decodinga  DVD. TheTM  5400 
max  temp  was  48  degrees  C ,  wh  i  I  e 
thePentium  III,  perhaps  unfairly 
naked  without  its  compulsory  heatsink,  peaked 
at  105  degrees  C. 

TheTM  3120  isdesigned  for  Internet 
appliances  and  ultra-portables,  whilethe 
T  M  5400,  wh  i  ch  can  al  so  adj  u  st  i  ts  cl  ock 
frequency  to  further  save  power,  is  aimed  at 
fully-functional  notebooks.  At  the  recent  PC 
Expo  show  in  N  ew  York,  several  prototype 
C  r u  soe  n  oteboo  ks  were  sh  o wn  an  d  T  ran  sm eta 
already  has  another  three  chips  coming  soon. 

I t's cu rrently  unknown  howtheCrusoe 
notebooks  will  compare  in  terms  of  speed  and 
battery  life  with  mobilesolutionsfrom  Intel  and 
AM  D,  not  to  mention  in  priceand  software 
compatibility.  It  is,  however,  an  exciting 
technology  and  a  welcomeadditional  player  in 
themobilemarket. 

Faster  and  faster 

T  h  ere  are  h  u  ge  d  i  f f eren  ces  between  t  h  e  var i  o  u  s 
architectures  and  designs  of  thecompeting 
processors,  but  that  doesn't  necessarily  mean 
t  h  at  t  h  ere  are  en  o  rmo  u  s  d  i  f  f  eren  ces  i  n 
performance.  Whilelntel  used  to  havethelead 
on  its  competitors  in  terms  of  raw  processing 
power,  with  theadvent  of  theAthlon,  this  is 
clearly  no  longer  thecase. 

Also,  raw  performanceis  not  thebe  all  end 
al  I  of  m i  coprocessors.  C I  earl  y  pri  ce  i  s  a  bi  g 
decider  for  many  peopleand  thepositioningof 
theDuron  against theCeleron  can  onlybegood 
newsfor  peoplewho  want  performance  without 
the  price. 

The  mobile  arena  is  a  key  market  for  all  and 
thechip  suppliers  and  it  will  be  interesting  to 
seehowthenew  low-power  designsof 
Transmeta's  Crusoeand,  to  a  lesser  degree,  VI  A's 
CyrixM  II, will  farein  thefuture. 

Onlyonethingiscertain  when  it  _ 

comesto  microprocessors,  and  that  is 
that  they'll  keep  getting  faster. 


inV 


Personal  Computer 


I O  RLD  •  0  CTO  BER  2000 


X86  CHIPS 


MCOMMERCE  >  > 


D 


Despite  the  promise  of  a  multitude 
of  WAP  Internet  services, Jane 

DuDMAN  FINDSTHAT  MCOMMERCE  IS 
STRUGGLING  TO  LIVE  UP  TO  TH  E  HYPE 


O  FAR  WAP  HAS  PROMISED  A  LOT, 

yet  delivered  relatively  little.  If  the 
advertising  isto  be  believed,  WAP 
(wireless application  protocol) 
phoneuserscan  surftheweb  and 
connect  to  a  multitudeof 
different  servi  ces.  T  h  e  real  i  ty  i  s  often  somewh  at 
different.  But  now  a  new  selling  point  has 
emerged  for  WAP,  that  of  mobileecommerce 
services,  or  mcommercefor  short. 

For  instance,  theWAP  Forum,  which 
represents  all  themajorsuppliersof  WAP 
phones  and  services,  paints  this  pictureof  what 
will  bepossible:  'I  maginestepping  out  of  an 
officebuildingto  go  to  theairport,  using  your 
WAP-enabled  wireless  device  to  check  thetraffic 
congestion,  followed  bythetrain  timetableand 


then  purchasing  a  train  ticket  onlineinstead 
of  driving.  On  theway  to  theairport,  you 
select  your  aisleseat  and  check  in  forthe 
flight,  reserving  a  special  meal,  and  unpack 
your  raincoat  after  looking  up  theweather  at 
your  destination.’ 

Soundsgreat.  But  hereiswhat  isactually 
availablefrom  thisscenario  at  present  via  BT 
Cellnet'sGenieWAP  portal  that  was  launched 
in  January:  'Currently,  it  is  not  possibleto  check 
traffic  congestion,’  said  thespokesperson  for 
Genie.  'You  can  check  train  times,  but  no,  you 
can’t  buy  train  tickets,  although  I  don't  think 
that'sfar away. You  can  buyan  airlineticket via 
oneof  our  partners,  such  as  Lastminute.com  or 
Thomas  Cook,  but  you  can't  check  in,reservea 
seat  or  order  a  meal.'  And  theweather?  'Thereis 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


ILLUSTRATION  ADRIAN  JOHNSON 


weather  news.  But  it's 
UK  only/hesaid. 

Things  areslightly 
better  in  some  areas 
with  M  viva,  thejoint 
AOL  Carphone 
Warehousemobile 
portal  launched  on 
20July.Thishasa 
link  into  CN  N's 
weather  service,  so  it 
provides  worldwide 
weather  information, 
and  ai  rl  i  netickets  are 
availableviaebookers 
orLastminute.com. 

Sometraffic  congestion 
information  isprovided,  but  it  is 
'limited',  admitted  an  M  viva 
spokesperson,  in  that  it  covers  only 
major  motorways.  'It  is  being 
developed,' the  spokesperson  added. 

H  owever,  you  can't  book  a  train  ticket 
or  even  look  up  train  times  via  M  viva, 
although  train  timetables  will  be 
available  by  the  end  of  August,  and 
you  cannot  check  in  foraflight  or 
reserve  a  meal. 

This  kind  of  gap  between  the 
hypeand  what  is  really  available 
isbeginning  to  alarm  somein  the 
industry.Theyareworried  that  oncethe 
f  i  rst ,  en  t  h  u  si  ast  i  c  WA  P  b  u  yers  real  i  se 
thelimited  nature  of  existing 
services,  which  do  not  providefull 
accessto  thel  nternet,  but  only  to 
sped  al  I  y-d  evel  o  ped ,  text-o  n  I  y 
onlineservices,therecould  bea 
back  I  ash .  A  n  egat  i  ve  respo  n  se 
could  hold  upanyfurther 
development  of  new  WAP 
applicationssuch  as 
mcommerce  services. 
Stephen  Wright, 
marketing  manager  at 
telecomsdistributor 
Rocom,said  sales  of 
WAP  handsets  are 


Left:  WAP 
users  can 
book  air  tickets 
online  with 
Lastminute.com 
Below:  Genie  is 
Cellnet'sown 
portal  for 
mobile  web 
surfers  and  one 
of  the  first  of 
its  kind 


relatively  slow, 
in  thewakeof 
an  initial  burst 
when  they 
were  bought  by 
early  adopters.  'I 
suspect  peopleare 
either  not  convinced  by 
the  servi  ces  th at  are  avai  I  abl  e 
or  areconfused  bytheWAP  concept,'  hesaid. 

Others  remain  confident  that  whilethe 
present  I  evel  of  WAP  servi  ces  i  s  pretty  weedy, 
this  will  not  seriously  harm  futuremarket 
growth.  'If  you  don't  havea  WAP  phonetoday, 
you'reprobably  not  missing  much,'  admitted 


M  i  ke  H  erman,  chai  rman  of  the  G I  obal  M  obi  I  e 
CommerceForum,  'but  I  firmly  believe  there  is 
an  absolutely  huge  market  here.  It  may  not  be 
thisyear,  it  may  not  even  benextyear,  but 
trading  over  portable  devices,  with  thesame 
functionality asover fixed  devices,  will  develop.' 

The  m arket  f o recasters  agree  wi  th  H  erman . 
Analysts  Frost  &  Sullivan  reckon  worldwide 
revenuefrom  mcommerce  was  close  to  $2.98b 
last  year,  but  will  be  worth  $64b  by  2005. 
Forrester  Research  putsthefigureeven  higher: 
it  thi  nks  worl  dwi  de  mcommerce  wi  1 1  be  worth 
$200b  by  2005.  M  errill  Lynch  estimates  the 
European  mobileportal  market  will  be  worth 
£14b  by  2005  and  £63b  by  2010. 

Thesekinds  of  figures  are 
seriously  tempting  for 
Internet  content  providers 
and  mobilenetwork 
operators,  both  of  which  are 
putting  a  lot  of  investment  into 
WAP  services.  In  particular, theUK's 
four  existing  mobilephonenetwork  operators 
areracingto  hook  users  into  their  own  services 
before  the  market  opens  up.  Cell  net  was  thefirst 
to  market,  with  Genie,  but  Orange  and 
Vodafone  both  now  have  mobile  portals  and 
deals  with  a  number  of  content  providers.  As 
yet,  no  commercial  WAP  service  is  avai  I  able 
from  O  ne20  ne,  but  thecompany  is  advertisi  ng 
for  developers  to  work  on  its  mobile  I  nternet 
services  and  says  it  is  investing  £2m  a  day  to 
ensurea  'winning  position'  in  theworld  of 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


includeiTouch,  which  isrun  by  Independent 
News&  M  edia,  and  the  previously  mentioned 
M  viva  portal  from  CarphoneWarehouseand 
AOL. 

Themain  services availablefrom  theseWAP 
portals  at  the  moment  arefai  rly  standard  fare: 
emai  I ,  entertai  n  ment  I  i  sti  n  gs,  sports,  travel , 
news,  weather,  share  prices,  some  shopping  and 
money  services.  As  yet,  there  are  far  fewer  true 
mcommerce applications,  such  astheabilityto 
buyand  sell  online. 

Oneissuethat  will  certainly  need  to  be 
addressed  before mcommercecan  takeoff  is 
security, something  in  which  Herman  is 
involved  in  a  commercial  capacity  as  vice- 
president  of  security  firm  Thyron,  which  has 
developed  a  concept  called  theYES.wallet,  to 
help  speed  up  transactions  over  WAP  devices 
(see box  below). 

But  there arealso  technical  limitationsat 
both  thefront  and  back  endsof  mobileonline 
ser vi  ces.  T  h  ere  are  o  b vi  o  u  s  p ro  b  I  em  s  t  ryi  n  g  t o 
carryout  complex  transactions  via  thesmal  I 
screen  of  a  mobile phoneor  even  a  Personal 
Digital  Assistant. 

Richard  Schwartz,  senior  vice-president  of 
tech  n o  I  ogy  at  software  com pany  Vi  gn ette, 
which  is  working  with  many  content  providers 
on  adapting  their  ecommerceapplicationsfor 


iTouch  currently  offers  such  things  as  news  and  travel 
information,  but  little  in  the  way  of  mcommerce 


themobilemarket,  said  mobileusersare,  by 
definition,  usually  doing  something  else  and 
concentrateon  their  phonefor  no  morethan 
about  10  seconds.  This  is  a  huge  difference  from 
the  average  d  eskto  p  bro  wsi  ngtimeofanything 
upto an  hourand  ahalf. 

'Thechallengeisto  develop  applications 
that  present  themselves,  require  an  absolute 
minimal  level  of  keystrokes  and  scrolling,  and 
return  theawaited  result  or  completethe 
transaction,'  said  Schwartz,  who  adds  that  what 
customers  need  is  a  smarter  generation  of 
devi  ce-sawy  ebu  si  n  ess  appl  i  cat  i  on  s. 


Peace  of  mind  on  the  move 


C  onvincing  users  that  mcommerce  services  are  secure  is  essential 
to  making  it  a  viable  method  of  performing  transactions 


How  secure  will  mobile 
Internet  transactions  be? 
The  WAP  Forum  insists  that 
the  WAP  approach  provides 
security,  based  on  the  WTLS 
(WirelessTransport  Layer 
Security)  specification,  which 
implementsoptionsfor 
authentication  and 
encryption. 

Encryption  appears  to  be 
the  answer  to  the  problem  of 
protecting  credit  card  details 
as  they  pass  over  insecure 
mobile  networks.  But  there  are 
still  a  lot  of  unanswered 
questions  about  security,  such 
as  what  happens  to  stored 
credit  card  details  if  theyare 
held  on  a  mobilephoneor 
PDA  that  is  stolen? 

More  pressing  in  the  first 
instance,  however,  is  the 
problem  of  convincing  people 
that  mobileonlineservices  can 
be  both  secure  and  easy  to 


use.  M  ike  Herman,  vice- 
president  of  security  firm 
Thyron,  says  there  is  a  lot  of 
content  just  waiting  to  be 
madeavailableon  mobile 
devices  that  can't  be 
distributed  at  the  moment 


because  there  is  no  effective 
way  to  payfor  it.  Gambling  is 
one  big  area,  he  points  out, 
that  is  being  held  up  because  it 
would  simplybetoo  difficult 
and  time-consuming  for 
mobileusersto  have  to  fill  in 


their  details  every  time  they 
logged  on  to  a  website. 

Thyron  has  come  up  with  a 
concept  it  calls  YES.wallet  to 
tryand  get  round  this 
p  ro  b  I  em .  T  h  e  sof  twa  re  sto  res 
users'  personal  information, 
including  billing  and  delivery 
addresses  and  credit  card 
details  on  a  secure  server. 

W  hen  the  user  wants  to  buy 
something  via  a  WAP  service, 
they  authorise  payment  by 
entering  a  PIN  and  their  details 
are  sent  on  to  the  merchant. 
The  software  is  being  licensed 
bylSPsand  will  befree 
to  users. 

According  to  Herman, 
YES.wallet  uses  the  security 
features  already  available  in 
mobile  phones.  To  get  this 
market  to  move,  people  don't 
need  to  know  what's  behind 
the  scenes,  they  just  need  to 
trust  that  it  issecure,'  hesaid. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


MCOMMERCE  > 


MCOMMERCE  >  > 


SI  ow  data  transfer  rates  over 
exi  st i  n  g  n  etwo r ks  are  al  so  si  o wi  n  g  u  p 
mobilelnternet  use,  and  even  the  high- 
street  dealers,  keen  to  shift  WAP  handsets, 
emphasisethat  whilethelaunch  of  GPRS 
later thisyear will  improvethespeed  of 
thecurrent  networks,  thereally  big 
breakthrough  will  comewith  the 
launch  of  thethird-generation  (3G) 
mobilenetwork  in  two  orthree years' 
timewhen,accordingtodealerDX  'you  will  be 
abl  e to  access  al  I  sorts  of  good  i  es  from  you  r 
phone,  such  as  video, TV  and  surf  the  Internet 
just  likefrom  your  PC'. 

At  the  back  end,  too,  whi  le 
standardisation  on 
WAP  formats 
has  provided  a 
substantial 
boost  in  mobile 
onlineservices, 
therearestill 
problemsfor 
content  providers 
in  having  to  convert 
Internet  information 
from  HTM  L  into 
Wireless  Markup 
Language(WM  L).  WM  L 
has  been 
developed 
to  provide 
easy 

navigation 
without  afull 
keyboard  and  has  the 
abi  I  i  ty  to  ad  apt  screen  d  i  sp  I  ays  f  o  r  a  ran  ge 
of  mobile  devices,  from  thesmallest  of  two-line 
text  d  i  sp  I  ays  to  f  u  1 1  grap  h  i  c  screen  son 
larger  PDAs. 

Schwartz saysonlinecontent  on  mobile 
deviceswill  onlyreallytakeoff  when  it  is  better 
adapted  to  thesekindsof  limitations.  H  e 


believesonewaythiswill  happen  isviafar  more 
personalised  services.  Auction  services, for 
instance,  could  benefit  from  this  approach.  A 
user  could  bid  for  an  item  whilesurfingfrom 
their  desktop  PC,  but  might  then  receive 
notification,  via  their  mobiledevice,  if  a  higher 
bid  ismadeand  would  automatically  be 
rejoined  to  theauction  to  makea  higher 
bid  themselves. 

But  thesekindsof  personalised  services  are 
someway  off  for  mobile  devices.  It  will  requirea 
great  deal  more 
investment  on  the  part 
of  theinfrastructure 
providers,  the 
handset 
manufacturers 
and  the 
application 
providers, 


in  order 
to  realisethe 
full  potential  of 
mcommerce  services. 
Theamount  of  money  now  being 
poured  into  both  developing  and 
ad  vert  i  si  n  g  m  o  bi  I  e  servi  ces  i  n  d  i  cates  t  h  e  I  evel  of 
i nterest  among  network  operators  i n  getti ng  a 
toehold  in  themobilelnternet  market. Just 
don't  buy  a  WAP  phonetomorrowand  expect  to 
be  able  to  access  your  local  takeaway  on  the  way 
home.  For  that,  as  for  many  other  services  right 
now,themobilephoneisstill  best  at  itsoriginal, 
old-fashioned  job:  enabling  consumersto  ring 
up  and  placean  order. 


European  mcommerce  takes  the  lead 


At  the  moment,  there  is  a 
distinct  split  in  online 
development  on  each  side  of 
the  Atlantic.  The  US  is  the 
undisputed  champion  of 
ecommerce.  Recently,  for 
instance,  European  Union  IT 
minister  Erkki  Liikanan 
announced  a  plan  to  develop 
more  d  iverse  website  co  ntent, 
after  research  revealed  that  94 
of  the  world's  100  most  visited 
websites  are  located  in  the  US 
and  that  most  web  pages  are 
in  English. 


But  Europe  has  the  highest 
number  of  mobile  phone  users 
per  head  in  the  world  and  this 
hasputthecontinent  in  pole 
position  in  thedeveloping 
mcommerce  market.  Many 
industry  analysts  predict  that 
by2003  there  will  be  more 
u  sers  accessi  n  g  o  n  I  i  n  e  servi  ces 
via  mobile  devices  than  via 
desktop  browsers. 

However,  some  in  the 
market  believethat  while 
Europe  has  a  lead  at  the 
moment,  both  the  US  and  the 


Far  East  are  hard  on  its  heels, 
for  different  reasons. 

Mobilephoneuseinthe 
Far  East  is  not  far  behind 
Europe  and  there  is  a  lot  of 
interest  in  innovative  new 
applications,  such  asonline 
gambling. 

In  the  US,  according  to  Les 
Line,  business  development 
manager  at  financial  software 
specialist  Fiserve,  which  is 
developing  online  banking 
services  accessible  via  desktop, 
mobile  and  interactiveTV 


devices,  the  situation  is 
different.  'US  colleagues  don't 
have  such  a  love  affair  with 
their  mobile  phones  as  we  do 
in  Europe,'  hesaid.  'They 
regard  mobiles  as  largelyfor 
social  use.  But  they  are  terrific 
users  of  PDAs,  so  when  PDAs 
and  mobilephonescome 
together  into  a  single  device  - 
and  we  are  now  seeing  smaller 
form  prototypes  of  that  - 1 
believe  themobileonline 
market  over  there  will  really 
takeoff.' 


|J  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


PHOTOGRAPH  TONY  STONE 


The  senx  machine  is  set  to  bring  the  three  m  issing  senses  to  your  PC. 

Seem^feel  me.. 


T  he  shopping  experience 
could  become  a  different 
ball  game  if  the  Senx 
machine  catches  on 


Although  noisy  and  colourful,  the 

Internet  isstill  sterileand  senseless.  Now 
a  US  company  claimsto  havefound  a 
way  to  send  tastes,  smells,  textures  and  even 
weather  conditions  over  the  I  nternet.  The 
company  has  even  been  granted  a  U  S  patent 
(#6053738)  for  itstechnology. 

The'Senx  machine'  isfitted  with  replaceable 
or  refillablecartridges  containing  liquidsor 
powdersused  to  createthesmellsand  tastes. 
These  cartridges  are  arranged  around  a  cylinder 
(likecorn  pelletson  a  cob)  that  can  be  rotated  in 
both  directions.  Doors  on  thecartridgescan  be 
controlled  to  allow  a  singledrop  to  exit.  A  rod 
si  ides  underneath  thecylinder  along  its  length, 
collecting  drops  of  thechemicals  that  are 
released  from  the  cartridges  at  the  bottom  of 
thecylinder.Thesedropsaremixed  in  different 
proportions  to  create  different  smells. 

To  releasethesesmells,therod  extends 
beyond  the  reach  of  thecartridgesintoatube, 
wherean  updraught  of  air  blows  thechemicals 


to  an  outsideoutletforsmellingortasting.To 
taste,  wafers  can  be f i tted  totheoutletfor 
flavouring  with  thechemicalsthat  aredispersed, 
orthemachinecan  havea straw-1  ikeoutlet  for 
putting  in  the  mouth.  Different  cylinders  of 
cartridges  are  to  beused  fortasteand  smell. 

Infra-red  sensors insidethecartridgesdetect 
when  they'rerunningout  and  automatically 
place  an  order  for  a  refill  over  the  I  nternet. 

Thepatent  includes  thesuggestion  that 
companies  (such  as  perfume  producers)  could 
offer  promotional  Tri  senx  machines  that  only 
includetheirown  scent. 

Thetexturesimulator  works  by  stimulating 
hairson  a  membrane,  which  isthen  touched  by 
puttingafinger through  an  opening.  A  less 
sophisticated  (but  moreaccurate)  texturedevice 
included  in  thepatent  works  by  rotatingadrum 
of  sampletexturesand  usingtinted  lightingto 
colourthem.Customersin  remotelocations 
could  choosefabrics  without  leaving  home. 

The  weather  simulator  combines  a  heating 
lamp  and  a  cooling  agent  to  quickly  control 
temperature  and  a  liquid  capsule  to  create 
humidity.  A  fan  simulates  wind  velocity  and 
water  drop  lets  fall  asrain.Thismight  beuseful 
for  education  or  ad  venture  games. 

The  inventors  suggest  that  the  machine 
could  haveitsown  controller  keyboard  as  well  as 
memory  to  storeinformation  about  which 
cartridges  contain  which  scents.Thiswould 
allow  it  to  beused  independently,  or  possibly  in 
connection  with  other  Internet-enabled  devices. 
0  r,  to  keep  costs  down,  the  unit  can  be 
controlled  from  a  conventional  PC. 

A  demonstration  on  theT ri senx  website 
( www.tr i  sen  x. co  m )  feat u  res  a  gam  e  wh  ere  a 
spacesh  i  p  sh  oots  f  ast-ap  p  roach  i  n  g  f  ru  i  ts  t  h  at , 
using  a  Senx  machine,  could  besmelled  asthey 
explode.  Whether thecost  of  theunit  would  be 
justified  by  this  type  of  entertainment  is 
uncertain.  If  themachinecan  be  made  accurate 
enough  to  satisfy  manufacturers,  though,  the 
devicecould  transform  I  nternet  shopping. 

So  far  books,  software  and  CDs  have  so  Id 
well  online.  Being  ableto  samplea  curry  before 
ordering  could  stimulatemeal  deli  very  services 
and  being  ableto  feel  thecloth  before  buying  an 
expensive  suit  would  undoubtedly  havea 
positive  effect  on  the  sales  of  clothes.  The 
company  has  already  formed  an  allianceto 
market  cosmetics,  fragrance  and  health  and 
beauty  products  and  claimsthefirst  machine 
will  beavailablein  thespring. 

SEAN  MCMANUS 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


PHOTOGRAPH  MOVIESTORE  COLLECTION 


The  road  to  teleportation  seems  to  be  a  case  ofmindingyourPsandQs 


Beam  me  up  Scotty 


Teleportation  iSAsdencefiction 
staple.  Peopleand  objects  are 
disintegrated,  beamed  across  the 
universein  theblinkof  an  eye,  and  are 
reconstructed  on  aremoteplanet,often  in  a 
landscapestrewn  with  styrofoam  boulders. The 
trouble  is,  fundamental  physics  has  always  said 
teleportation  cannot  possibly  ever  work.  Until 
recently,  that  is. 

The  idea  of  teleportation  is  simple.  You 
first  record  all  possibleinformation  about  the 
object  you  want  to  teleport,  then  transmit  the 
information  to  the  new  location.  Then,  you 
read  back  the  i  nformation,  decode  it,  and 
reconstruct  theobject.  But  thelaws of  quantum 
mechanics  scupper  you  beforeyou  can  even 
get  started. 

Let'sconsiderteleportingasingleatom. 
Quantum  mechanics  says  that  the  very  act  of 
measuring  an  atom's statechanges that  state. 
And  themoreaccurateyou  tryto  makeyour 
measurement, themoreyou  disrupt theatom. 

So  this  rules  out  the  possibility  of  ever 
extracting  enough  information  about  an  atom 
to  makea  perfect  replica.  But  researchers  have 
recently  found  a  way  around  theproblem,  using 
aquantum  property  cal  led  'entanglement'. 

Quantum  particles  have  states  that  can  be 
used  to  represent  binary  digits.  If  a  particle 
spins  oneway,  for  example,  it  can  represent  a  0; 
if  it  spins  theother  way,  it's  a  1.  Particles  like 
thisarecalled  'qubits',  and  form  thebasisfor 
building  quantum  computers.  But  you  can  only 
ever  tell  what  statea  particle  is  in  by  performing 
a  measurement  on  it.  When  you'renot  looking, 
itexistsin  aweird  mixtureof  0/1  states  cal  led 
a 'superposition'. 

It's  possibleto  prepare  two  particles-  P  and 
Q,  say  -  in  such  a  way  that  they're  intimately 
related,  likequantum  twins.  Let's  separate  P  and 
Q ,  an  d  sen  d  t h  em  as  far  apart  as  we  I  i  ke.  T  h  ey're 
still  both  in  theindeterminateO-ish/l-ish  state. 
N  o w  I  et 's  m easu  re  P,  an d  say  we  d  i  sco ver  it's  i  n 
stateO.  I  nstantaneously,  this  means  that 
particleQ,  which  may  be  light-years  away  on  the 
other  sideof  the  uni  verse,  instantly  assumes  the 
oppositestate-  it's  now  definitely  spinning  as  a 
1.  Entanglement  has  been  known  theoretically 
for  decades,  but  it's  only  recently  been  proven  by 
experiment.  'Entanglement  means  if  you  tickle 
onetheotheronelaughs,'said  Caltech  physicist 
Jeff  Kimble,  oneofthe  research  ers  to  f  i  rst 
demonstrate  entanglement  in  thelab. 

Although  theentanglement  effect  isn't  itself 
teleportation,  it  provides thekey.  Let'simagine 


Alicewantsto  teleport  a  particle  (say,  A)  to  Bob. 
First,  she  creates  two  entangled  particles,  P  and 
Q,  keeping  P,and  sending  Q  to  Bob  through 
someordinary  data  channel  likethel  nternet. 
Now,  Alice  allows  particlesP  and  A  to  interact, 
measures  theresulting  state,  and  sendsthat 
data  to  Bob.  Bob  then  appliesthatdatatoQ, 
which  -  and  this  is  the  magic  bit  -  then  turns 
into  an  exact  copy  of  particle  A!  Theoriginal 
particle  A  isstill  with  Alice,  but  itsstatehas 
been  scrambled. 

So  you  can  teleport  an  atom,  and  peopleare 
madeof  atoms  so...  wel  I,  the  answer  to  the 
obviousquestion  isat  best  'who  knows?'  -  but 


what  isemergingasa  possibility  istheuse 
of  teleportation  to  send  qubits  between 
quantum  computers,  linked  into  aquantum 
Internet.  Quantum  computers  already  exist 
(seeFutures,  M  ay  1999),  and  thecurrent  largest 
machinecomputeswith  wordsseven  qubits 
long  (http://qso.lanl.gov/qc/).  It's  also  possible 
to  preparetheentangled  particles  such  that 
theentanglement  itself  actually  encodes 
an  algorithm. 

You  can  alreadytryquantum  computation 
foryourself,  byrunningasimulatoron  your  PC, 

see  www.  sen  ko-co  r  p  .co  .j  p/  qcs/ .  As  f  or 

tel  epo  rt  i  n  g  yo  u  rsel  f  across  t  h  e  u  n  i  verse,  yo  u 
might  haveto  wait  a  littlelonger. 

TOBYHOWARD 


Science  fiction  may 
yet  become  fact,  but 
hold  your  horses 
before  you  get  ready 
to  teleport  yourself 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


r 

ontentsl 

172 

AcerVeriton  FP 

AJP  Neo-PC 

173 

CarerraOctan  DM  650 
ElonexBookPC 

176 

evesham.com  Evolution 
GatewayProfile2 

177 

H  i-GradeUltiNet  733 

Packard  Bell  Spirit  RF  730 

181 

PanrixV-Box  H  omeTheatre  PC 
SimplySystemaxP750  RV 
Performance 

182 

TimeTimeM  achine  750-7r 

VQ  Pro 

Viglen  Incepta 

184 

Alternative  architecture 

186 

How  we  did  the  tests 

187 

Performance  results 

190 

Features  table 

193 

Editor's  Choice 

•  PCs  reviewed  by  Scott  M  ontgomery  and  tested 

byLarsGoran-Nilsson 

If  you've  coveted  the  iM  ac  for  its  looks, 
read  on,  because  this  month  we 
challenged  12  manufacturers  to  come  up 
with  a  slimline  system  you'd  be  proud  to 
nave  in  your  living  room 


The  age  of  grey  dull  boxes  may  soon  be  over  -  well  at  least  the  box 

part.  This  month  we  decided  to  see  what  the  PC  manufacturers  have 
come  up  with  to  compete  with  the  more  stylish  looks  that  machines 
like  the  iM  ac  manage  to  achieve;  and  rather  surprisingly,  there  are  a 
number  of  very  small,  unobtrusive  solutions  that  are  -  dare  we  say  it 
-  stylish  enough  to  have  in  your  living  room. 

The  reason  for  this  is  that  today  there  are  high-quality  small  form  factor 
motherboards  with  both  sound  and  video  onboard,  allowing  manufacturers  to  cram 
quite  a  lot  of  computer  into  a  small  space,  while  still  leaving  enough  in  the  budget  for 
appealing  items  such  asTFT  flat  panels.  It  is  certainly  a  long  overdue  move,  and 
there  are  a  few  really  snappy  systems  out  there  that,  despite  being  more  expensive 
than  their  bigger  brothers,  are  far  more  likely  to  not  be  hidden  in  your  spare  room. 

We  set  the  manufacturers  simple  guidelines  for  this  group  test,  and  with  no  price 
point,  all  the  machines  had  to  do  was  allow  easy  access  to  the  Internet  and  be  able  to 
handle  home/ office  duties.  The  system  had  to  be  a  small,  unobtrusive  easy-to-use 
PC,  with  at  least  64M  B  of  RAM ,  10G  B  of  hard  drive  space,  a  DVD  or  CD-RO  M ,  a 
minimum  of  a  15in  display,  a  modem,  and  an  office  suite.  The  entrants  varied  from 
the  very  inexpensive  smallish  PC  to  the  ultra-stylish,  ultra-expensive  unit  where 
money  needs  to  be  no  object.  If  you're  looking  for  something  a  little  bit  different, 
then  the  following  pages  show  that  theold  PC  needn't  beonlya  grey  box,  but  can  be 
as  stylish  as  the  best  of  them. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  171 


PH  OTOGRAPH  DAVI D  WHYTE 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS  >  > 


A  cer  Veriton  FP 


LIKE  AJP'S  PC,  THE  Acer  Veriton  FP  is 
an  integrated  unit,  with  speakers  built 
into  lower  corners  of  the  fascia,  below 
the  15in  TFT  screen.  The  Panasonic  CD- 
ROM  and  3. 5in  floppydrivesit  between 
the  speakers,  along  with  an  infra-red 
port.  The  Veriton  doesn't  havethe 
simple  elegance  of  AJP's  system,  but  the 
screen  image  is  sharp  -  although  the 
colours  are  not  as  vibrant  as  some  other 
TFT  screens.  The  screen  can  betilted  to 
the  required  viewing  angle. 


Processing  power 
comes  in  theform  of  a 
500MHz  Pentium  III, 
mounted  on  the  BX-based 
motherboard.  Installed  in 
oneoftheDIM  M  slots  is 
128MB  of  PC100 
SDRAM,  leaving  one  slot 
free  for  upgrading  the 
memory.  A  modem  is 
supplied  as  standard. 

Both  sound  and  video  are 
integrated  onto  the 
motherboard  in  theform 
of  an  ESS  Solo  audio  chip 
and  an  ATi  RageLT  Pro 
graphics  chip,  supported 
by8M  B  of  SDRAM  .  As 
with  all  the  integrated 
units,  upgradability  is  not  the  priority. 

Forstorage,  a  13GB  Quantum  hard 
disk  is  installed,  which  is  not  large  by 
today's  standards,  but  will  be  adequate. 
Unfortunately,  onlya  CD-ROM  is 
supplied  for  optical  reading,  where  DVD 
would  be  preferable  and  would  make 
more  sense  with  a  unit  of  this  price. 
Inclusion  of  thefloppydrive,  however,  is 
beneficial  forsmall  filetransfer.  In 
general,  the  spec  on  this  system  is  not  as 
strong  as  similarly  priced  units,  although 


the  inclusion  of  network  software  and 
thelackof  an  office  suite  point  to  this 
machine's  roots  and  price  being  firmly  in 
the  business  world.  For  home  use, 
though,  Acer  will  supplytheunit  with 
whatever  software  is  required  and  add 
the  cost  to  the  basic  price. 

Overall,  the  Veriton  FP  is  not  as 
stylish  as  some  of  the  other  all-in-one 
units  in  this  group  test,  but  then  again,  it 
has  been  primarily  designed  for  the 
business  environment.  It  is  expensive  for 
thespecification  supplied,  although  it 
will  take  up  very  little  space,  and  won't 
spoil  yourdecortoo  much. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £2,113.82  (£1,799  exVAT) 
CONTACT  Acer 0870  900  2237 

www.acer.co.uk 

PROS  All-inclusive  unit  with  aTFT  screen; 
infra-red  port. 

CONS  Very  pricey  for  the  specification; 
software  not  included  in  the  price 
OVERALL  An  all-in-one  unit  that  is  pretty 
small  and  unobtrusive,  but  too  expensive  for 
the  spec.  There  are  better  value  systems  in  this 
group  test 


FEATURES 

★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★ 

AJP  Neo-PC 


unit  is  heavier  than  it 
looks.  The  15. lin  TFT 
screen  is  attached  to  the 
front  of  the  main  body 
and  pivots  up  and  down 
for  comfortable  viewing. 
The  on-screen  image  is 
even  with  well- 
represented  colour. 

The  AJP  is  powered  by 
a  750M  Hz  Flip  Chip 
Pentium  III,  mounted  on  a 
Slot  1  converter,  for  use 
with  the  Mitac  BX-based 
motherboard.  Occupying 
oneoftheDIM  M  slots  is 
a  128M  B  moduleof 
PC100  SDRAM ,  leaving 
oneslotfree  for 
upgrading,  although  this  involves 
placing  the  unit  on  its  screen  and 
removing  the  back.  An  onboard  Crystal 
Sound  Fusion  chip  provides  sound, 
which  is  piped  to  the  integrated 
speakers,  while  an  ATi  Rage  LT  Pro  with 
8MB  of  SDRAM  deals  with  video. 

The  hard  drive  is  a  very  respectably 
sized  20.5GB  Quantum  Fireball,  and  a 
vertically  mounted  3.5in  floppy  drive  is 
installed  to  oneside.  Unfortunately 
loading  floppies  correctlyinto  the 


AJP'S  NEO-PC,  ISONE  of  the  most 
expensive  systems  in  this  month's  test.  A 
concept  PC  for  the  ultra-stylish,  it  both 
looks  good  and  has  the  specs  to  match. 

Apart  from  the  ergonomic  keyboard 
and  the  mouse,  the  PC  is  integrated  into 
a  single  unit  that  has  a  small  footprint 
for  a  relatively  unobtrusive  presence  in 
your  living  room  or  office,  although  the 
power  cable  pushes  it  forward  from  the 
wall.  There  is  even  a  handleon  thetop 
for  easy  transportation,  although  the 


laptop-style  drive  is  quite  difficult, 
requiring  nimblefingersto  push  the 
disks  home.  A  H  itachi  DVD  is  mounted 
besidethefloppydrive. 

The  Apollo  Fax/  M  odem  fits  neatly 
into  a  PC  Card  slot  on  the  left  of  the 
unit,  leaving  a  second  slot  free  for  other 
peripherals.  The  system  also  has  an 
onboard  network  adaptor,  as  well  as  an 
infra-red  port. 

The  N  eo-PC  doesn't  only  look  pretty, 
the  bundled  M  icrosoft  Works  Suite 
2000  is  a  strong  software  package.  If 
you're  looking  for  a  PC  with  simple, 
elegant  looks  and  don't  mind  paying  the 
premium,  this  may  just  fit  the  bill. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £1,976.35  (£1,682  exVAT) 

(delivery  £15  unless  ordered  on  the  Internet) 
CONTACT  AJP  020  8208 9755 
www.ajp.co.uk 

PROS  Simple  elegant  machine,  with  a  built-in 
TFT  screen 
CONS  Very  pricey 

OVERALL  A  good  specification  on  a  simple 
unobtrusive  machine.  It's  expensive,  but 
perhapsworthalook 


FEATURES 

★★★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★★ 

•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Carrera  Octan  DM  650 


THE  SMALLEST  OF  Carrera's  Octan 
range,  the  DM ,  looks  like  a  conventional 
PC,  just  slightly  smaller.  The  micro  ATX 
case  is  a  similar  height  to  a  conventional 
PC,  but  not  as  deep.  A  quick  look  inside 
shows  that  the  depth  has  been  cut  to 
enablethe  micro  ATX  motherboard  to 
fit  snugly  with  no  room  to  spare. 

The  Biostar  M  7VKA  motherboard 
employs  the  VIA  KT133  chipset,  with  the 
new  650M  Hz  Duron  processor  and 
128M  B  of  PC133  SDRAM  strapped  into 


it.  There  are  two  spare 
DIM M  slotsand the 
motherboard  can  support 
a  massive  maximum 
1.5GB  of  RAM. 

Installed  in  oneof  the 
two  5.25in  bays isa  Ricoh 
Combo  drive.  This  allows 
four-speed  DVD  reading, 
24-speed  CD  reading  and 
writes  and  rewrites  discs 
at  six-speed  and  four- 
speed  respectively. 

Carrera  has  also  included 
both  a  CD-R  and  CD-RW 
disc  with  the  bundleto 
get  you  started. 

A  15GB  Western 
Digital  hard  diskin  oneof 
the  3.5in  bays  leaves  one  bay  free. 
Although  not  the  largest  hard  disk  in  the 
test,  15GB  will  still  takea  whileto  fill.  A 
modem  is  seated  in  the  AM  R  slot. 

The  motherboard  has  both  sound 
and  graphicsonboard.Thesound  is 
integrated  into  the  VIA  chipset,  and 
outputsto  thesupplied  Altec  Lansing 
speakers.  The  graphics,  although 
onboard,  are  provided  by  an  nVidia 
TNT2  chip,  with  32MB  of  SDRAM. 

As  with  theTime  entrant,  this 


onboard  graphics  solution  allows  the 
Octan  DM  to  produce  a  respectable 
gaming  performance.  With  a  Quakelll 
score  of  24.8fps  (frames  per  second), 
it's  not  quiteasfast  astheTimePC,  but 
then  neither  of  them  aretryingto  be 
games  machines. 

Themonitor  isan  LG  775N  17in 
unit.  As  the  PC's  case  is  not  as  small  as 
the  systems  from  Simplyor  Elonex,  the 
monitor  does  not  looktoo  large,  but  for 
space-saving  considerations,  a  15in  unit 
would  have  sufficed. 

Lotus  SmartSuite  M  illennium  is 
included,  making  this  a  pretty  good 
machineoverall.  It  iscertainlynotthe 
most  stylish  in  thetest  though. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £938.93  (£749  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Carrera 020 8307  2800 

www.carrera.co.uk 

PROS  Good  performance 

CONS  It  just  looks  likea  small  PC  and  might 

not  looktoo  good  inthelivingroom 

OVERALL  This  is  a  good  performer  and,  if 

you  don't  mind  theconventional  design,  it  isa 

good  machine 


FEATURES 

★★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★★ 

Elonex  Book  PC 


THE  BOOK  PC  IS satisfyingly small  and 
includes  a  stand  that  allows  the  case  to 
sit  vertically.  As  with  Simply's  entrant, 
theunit  includes  a  17in  monitor,  where 
a  15in  would  bemorein  keeping  with 
thesmaller  chassis. 

Thefront  of  the  case  has  a  full-sized 
floppy  drive,  as  well  as  a  laptop-sized 
M  itsumi  CD-RO  M  drive.  There  is  also  an 
infra-red  port  on  thefront.  A  small  flap 
allows  access  to  the  two  USB  ports,  plus 
headphoneand  microphone  sockets. 


Insidethecaseisan 
MSI  motherboard. The 
NLX  form  factor  uses  a 
riser  board,  which  means 
the  PCI  slots  are 
perpendicular  to  the  main 
board,  so  installed  cards 
lie  parallel.  This  allows 
moreboardsto  befitted 
into  a  smaller  space. 
Tucked  neatly  under  the 
CD-ROM  isa  27.3GB 
Fujitsu  hard  drive,  giving 
plentyof storage.  With  its 
810E  Intel  chipset,  this 
machine  isfor  gamers, 
butthe733M  HzPentium 
III  Flip  Chip  will  pound 
through  anything  else  you 
can  throw  at  it.  The  motherboard  has  a 
single  128M  B  PC133  memory  module 
installed,  leaving  one  DIMM  socket  free, 
although,  unfortunately,  on  the  PC  we 
saw,  the  memory  was  incorrectly 
clocked  at  100M  Hz  in  the  BIOS. 

As  for  upgrading,  apart  from  USB 
peripherals,  there  is  a  problem  if  PCI 
cards  need  to  be  installed.  The  modem 
sitsin  oneofthetwo  available  PCI  slots, 
and,  although  the  other  is  free,  a  serial 
port  obscures  the  backing  plate  position 


in  the  case.  This  means  the  serial  port 
will  have  to  go  if  another  PCI  card  is 
installed.  However,  a  serial  port  is  built 
into  the  motherboard,  so  the  sacrifice 
isn't  too  great.  At  the  back  there  is  a 
socket  for  the  onboard  network 
adaptor,  along  with  a  DVI  output.  The 
onboard  Yamaha  sound  output  is  also 
at  the  back  and  is  piped  to  the  Creative 
SBS20  speakers. 

The  inclusion  of  M  icrosoft  Office 
2000  Small  Business  Edition  means  the 
software  on  this  PC  is  excellent.  Its  small 
case  is  a  good  size,  although  the  monitor 
isslightlytoo  large.  If  this  doesn't 
bother  you,  this  system  is  good  value; 
but  for  a  bit  more  cash,  you  could  afford 
the  more  stylish  Hi-GradeUltiNet  733. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £1,065  (£899  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Elonex020 8452  4444 
www.elonex.com 

PROS  Small  case  with  infra-red  at  thefront 
CONS  17in  monitor  dwarfs  the  case 
OVERALL  A  good  little  system  with 
reasonable  performance.  U  nfortunately  the 
monitor  doesn't  complementthesmall  chassis 


FEATURES 

★★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★★ 

Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS  >  > 


WITH  A  M ICROTOWER  two-thirds 
thesizeof  a  normal  PC  case,  and  a  15in 
evesham.com-branded  monitor,  the 
Evolution  looks  likea  PC  in  miniature. 

0  pening  the  unit  was  a  nerve- 
jangling  experience,  although  as  there  is 
no  room  for  internal  upgrading,  there  is 
no  need  to  get  insidethebox.  The  Intel 
810E  Desktop  motherboard  has  both 
sound  and  video  onboard.  A  Creative 
SoundBlaster  PCI  128  feeds  Creative 
SBS52  speakers,  while  the  810E  chipset, 


along  with  4M  B  of 
SDRAM ,  deals  with 
graphics.  A  single  DIM  M 
slot  isfilled  with  a  128M  B 
PC133  memorymodule, 
although  as  the  system 
busislOOMHz,  running 
the  Pentium  III  processor 
at  700MHz,  this  faster 
memory  is  redundant, 
although  it  affords  some 
future  proofing.  There  is 
also  an  onboard  network 
adaptor,  with  theoutput 
at  the  rear.  ThesinglePCI 
slot  holdsa  Diamond 
SupraExpress  modem. 

To  compensate forthe 
lack  of  internal  upgrade 
options,  there  are  four  USB  ports,  two 
at  the  rear  and  two  at  thefront  under 
the  small  blue  rounded  flap.  This  looks 
finewhen  it  is  closed,  but  is  not 
aesthetically  pleasing  when  open, 
although  the  location  of  USB  portson 
thefront  perhaps  makes  this 
compromise  acceptable.  Both  the 
mouseand  keyboard  areUSB,  although 
the  keyboard  has  a  PS/2  mouse  socket 
into  which  you  could  plug  a  PS/2 
mouse,  freeing  a  USB  port. 


A  20GB  Maxtor  hard  drive  is 
included,  as  well  as  a  Samsung  Combo 
drive  to  cater  for  removable  storage. 

This  allows  CD-ROM  sand  DVDs  to  be 
read,  whilealso  allowingCD-R  and  CD- 
RW  media  to  be  written.  On  the  whole, 
a  very  versatile  solution  to  the  issues  of 
optical  reading  and  removable  storage. 

Coming  complete  with  M  icrosoft 
Works  Suite  2000,  this  machine  has  it  all 
-  in  miniature.  Only  one  real  criticism 
can  be  levelled:  the  image  on  the 
monitor  submitted  for  review  was  very 
poor.  Ultimately,  the  Evolution  will  do 
its  job,  but  it's  not  much  cheaper  than 
the  superior  Hi-Grade  machine. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £1,291.32  (£1,099  exVAT) 

CONTACT  0800  038  0800 

www.evesham.com 

PROS  Small,  compact  system,  with  a  good 
combo  drive 

CONS  Monitorimagequalitywaspooron our 
test  unit;  U  SB  flap  is  unattractive 
OVERALL  A  small,  relatively  unobtrusive 
unit.  If  CD  writing  is  required,  this  unit  is 
worth  a  look 


FEATURES 

★★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★ 

6  ateway  Profile  2 


GATEWAY'S  PROFILE  2  is  a  stylish 
system  that  would  certainly  be  a 
conversation  point  if  it  were  nestled  in 
your  living  room.  With  its  curvy  body 
supporting  a  high-quality  15in  TFT 
screen,  Gateway  has  moved  awayfrom 
the  boxy  conventional  lines  of  PCs. 

Asa  'legacy-free'  machine,  there  are 
no  output  sockets  except  four  USB  ones. 
The  keyboard  plugs  into  one  port, 
leaving  the  others  free  for  peripherals 
(the  USB  mouse  conveniently  plugs  into 


the  keyboard  to  keep  the 
other  ports  free).  The 
only  other  sockets  arethe 
M  otorola  modem  output 
and  the  Ethernet  network 
output,  both  situated  at 
the  back. 

There  was  no  popping 
the  bonnet  on  this 
machineto  ogle  its 
interior,  sincethe  Profile 
2  is  a  'sealed  box'.  It  has 
1  not  been  built  for  the 

upgrade  addict,  and  its 
performance  is  geared 
towards  Internet  surfing 
and  officeapplications. 

Its  Celeron  500M  Hz 
processor  is  adequate  for 
these  tasks,  asisthelntel  810-based 
motherboard  and  the64M  B  of  PC100 
memory.  Graphics  and  sound  are  both 
dealt  with  onboard  by  the  810  chipset 
(thevideo  having  4M  B  of  SDRAM  to 
help  it  along),  with  thesound  piped 
to  speakers  that  are  integrated  into 
the  base. 

The  IBM  Deskstar  20.5GB  hard  disk 
will  provide  plenty  of  space;  and  a  floppy 
drive  is  installed  at  thefront.  Abovethis 
is  a  Toshiba  DVD-ROM  foroptical 


reading,  while  below  it  there  is  a  built-in 
microphoneaswell  asa  headphone 
socket  for  convenient  access. 

Bundled  with  M  icrosoft  Works  Suite 
2000,  this  is  a  fine  unit.  The  stand  holds 
the  screen  at  a  good  level  for  viewing 
and  gives themachinea  moreorganic 
profile  -  Gateway  has  even  put  a  curve 
on  thetop  of  thefascia  to  get  awayfrom 
anyartificial  man-madestraight  lines.  It 
won't  be  breaking  any  performance 
records,  but  when  it  comes  to  style,  this 
may  well  bethemachineto  put  in  your 
living  room,  and  it'scertainlya  worthy 
winner  of  this  month's  H  ighly 
Commended  award. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £1,643.82 
(£1,399  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Gateway0800 552  000 

www.gateway.com/uk 

PROS  Wonderfully  vibrant  TFT  screen; 

interesting  shape 

CONS  A  little  pricey 

OVERALL  Different  enough  to  normal  PCs 
and  with  an  excellent  TFT  screen,  the  Gateway 
would  bea  stylish  addition  to  anylivingroom 


FEATURES 

★★★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★★ 

•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Hi-Grade  UltiNet  733 


THE  ULTINET  733  is  a  very  snappy 
looking  machine,  with  its  small  case  and 
TFT  screen. Thecaseisonly29x9x 
28cm  (wxh  xd),  yet  it  still  has  room  for 
both  a  full-sized  floppy  drive  in  thefront 
and  an  Asus  E608  DVD.  If  nothing  else, 
this  PC  will  lookgood  inyourliving 
room,  butthankfullythereismuch  more. 

Powered  bya  733M  Hz  Pentium  III 
processor  on  the  L-shaped  Chaintech 
motherboard,  this  little  machine  has 
versatility  we  would  usually  expect  only 


from  a  much  larger  unit. 
Opening  a  front  flap 
reveals  two  USB  ports, 
microphoneand 
headphonesockets,  as 
well  as  a  FireWire  socket. 
Round  the  back,  there  are 
a  further  two  USB  ports, 
a  serial  port,  a  parallel 
port,  two  PS/2  sockets,  a 
further  FireWire  socket,  a 
DVI,  as  well  asS-Video 
and  composite  video 
outputs.  Wethinkyou'll 
agreethisisan  incredible 
array  of  connectivity. 
There  is  even  an  IrDA  port 
at  thefront  for  infra-red 
communication. 

Especially  noteworthy  are  the 
FireWire  sockets,  which  allow  digital 
video  devices  to  be  attached  -  ideal  for 
thosewho  dabblein  video-editing 
capabilities. The20.4GB  hard  diskwill 
fill  up  reasonablyquicklywiththissort 
of  task,  but  it  will  beadequatewith  a  bit 
of  organisation. 

With  128MBofPC133  SDRAM 
installed,  one  DIM  M  is  free  for  upgrade, 
but  apart  from  this  there  is  no  room  for 
expansion.  There  is  an  AM  R  socket, 


i  '-1 


although  this  holdsthe  AM  R  modem. 
Both  sound  and  video  areonboard  and 
are  controlled  bytheSiSchipset. 

The  15in  TFT  flat  panel  has 
integrated  speakers  in  the  base,  and  the 
screen  can  betilted  up  and  down  to 
adjust  for  comfortable  viewing.  The 
combination  of  both  theTFT  screen  and 
thesmall  case  makes  this  a  PC  that  will 
lookgood  wherever  you  decideto  put  it. 
The  system  case  can  even  be  stood  on  its 
side  to  save  space. 

Bundled  with  Lotus SmartSuite 
M  illennium,  and  costing  only  £1,373.58 
inc  VAT,  you'll  be  hard  pressed  to  find  a 
machine  as  unobtrusive,  yet  still  offering 
the  versatility.  Overall,  a  worthy  winner 
of  this  month's  Editor's  Choice. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £1,373.58 
(£1,169  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Hi-Grade020  8532  6111 

www.higrade.com 

PROS  Compact,  stylish  and  versatile  PC 

CONS  None 

OVERALL  If  it's  a  small  PC  you  desire,  then 
thisistheoneto  go  for 


FEATURES 

★★★★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★★★ 

Packard  Bell  Spirit  RF  730 


THIS  LATEST  INCARNATION  of  the 

Spirit  series  certainly  has  some  ethereal 
qualities  in  that  both  its  keyboard  and 
mouse  are  cordless,  so  you  literally 
'beam'  your  information  to  the  PC  via 
radio  waves.  Decked  out  in  stylish  dark 
greyand  silver,  theSpirit  RF  730  isone 
of  the  most  attractive  in  the  test.  Its 
SlimviewTFT  screen  has  a  fairly  sharp 
and  vibrant  image ,  although  it  is  not  of 
thesamequalityasthedigital  flat  panels 
bundled  with  previous  Spirits. 


The  case  is 

constructed  to  mount 
vertically,  which  makes 
loading  CD  media  into 
the  drive  a  little  awkward, 
but  that's  a  price  you  have 
to  pay  for  stylish  looks. 
Thisniggleaside,  the 
Pioneer  DVD114  isa 
quality,  full-sized  drive. 
Below  the  DVD  sits  a 
laptop  floppy  drive.  Also 
adorning  thefront  of  the 
Spirit  RF  730  isoneofthe 
two  USB  ports,  along 
with  a  microphone  socket 
(for  use  with  thesupplied 
microphone)  and  a 
headphonesocket, 
complete  with  a  useful  volumecontrol. 

The  processor  is  a  powerful 
733M  HzPentium  III,  which  sitson 
the  MSI  810E-based  motherboard. 

The  memory  installed  isa  single 
moduleof  128M  B  memory  clocked 
to  133M  Hz,  complementing  the 
133MHz  FSB.  Another  DIMM  slot  is 
free  for  upgrading. 

Inside,  the  modem  sits  in  the  AM  R 
slot,  leaving  thetwo  available  PCI  slots 
free  for  adding  any  required  cards.  A 


fairly  large  20.4G  B  Maxtor  hard  disk 
takes  care  of  fixed  storage.  Video  is 
onboard  and  isdealtwith  bythe810E 
chipset,  asisthesound,  which  is  piped 
to  rather  stylish  flat  N  XT  speakers. 

A  good  software  bundle-  Packard 
Bell's  Spirit  CD  collection  (including 
Caeser  III  and  Photo  Express)  and 
M  icrosoft  Works  2000  -  complements 
its  stylish  looks.  With  its  radio- 
controlled  keyboard  and  mouse,  TFT 
screen  and  stylish  colours,  this  is  an 
eye-catching  PC,  with  a  bit  of  power 
as  well.  That  said,  it's  more  expensive 
than  someof thesimilarlyspecced  PCs 
in  this  test. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £1,899  (£1,616  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Packard  Bell  01628  508  200 

www.packardbell.co.uk 

PROS  Very  stylish  looking  unit 

CONS  A  little  bit  pricey;  flat  panel  not  as  good 

as  previous  models 

OVERALL  With  its  cool  grey  colour  and  its 
flat  speakers,  this  unit  looks  great;  and  it  has  a 
solid  spec  and  good  software.  It's  just  a  little 
on  the  expensive  side 


FEATURES 

★★★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★ 

Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


177 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS 


Panrix  V-Box  Home  Theatre  PC 


LOOKING  SOMEWHAT  LIKE  a  video 
recorder  without  a  time  display,  Panrix's 
entry  wins  the  prize  for  the  system  that 
looks  least  like  a  PC.  Built  primarily  as  a 
low-cost  alternative  to  conventional 
PCs,  Panrix  expects  to  supplytheV-Box 
without  a  monitor,  leaving  the  user  to 
connect  it  to  a  television.  However,  our 
review  unit  came  with  a  ViewSonic  17in 
monitor,  or  you  could  have  a  dark  grey 
monitor  (to  match  thecase)  if  you  want 
a  matching  ensemble. 


A  TV-style  remote 
control  is  included,  which 
has  a  joystick-driven 
mouse,  so  you  can  operate 
theV-Boxfromthe 
comfort  of  your  armchair. 
TheV-Boxiscertainlya  big 
move  away  from 
conventional  thinking. 

An  infra-red  keyboard 
allows  input  to  the  system 
from  anywherewithin  a 
fairly  large  room,  as  long 
as  the  keyboard  is 
pointed  at  the  receiver.  To 
aid  reception,  the  receiver 
extends  on  a  short  cable 
for  optimal  positioning. 
The  motherboard  is 
Intel  810-based,  with  video  dealt  with  by 
the  chipset,  and  supported  by2M  B  of 
onboard  video  memory.  Sound  is 
onboard  in  theform  of  a  C-M  edia  chip 
(which  is  also  employed  for  use  with  the 
modem),  and  a  quality  set  of  Creative 
Soundworks  D  igital  speakers  is  included 
to  blast thesound  out. Themother- 
board  hasa  128M  B  memorymodule 
slotted  into  oneof  thetwo  available 
DIMM  slots. 

This  Panrix  has  neither  vacant  bays, 


nor  anyslotsfor  upgrade,  although  for 
the  target  user,  this  is  unlikely  to  be  a 
concern.  A  Panasonic  SR-8584A  DVD 
and  afloppydrivefill  theonly available 
drive  bays,  whilea  15.3GB  Maxtor 
91531U3  hard  drive  deals  with  storage. 
In  terms  of  software  M  icroso ft  Works 
2000  is  bundled  in. 

This  low-cost  move  away  from  PC 
convention  is  interesting.  Onlyonething 
concerns  us,  and  that  isthequalityof 
theimageon  atelevision.  With  lower 
resolution,  web  pages  and  especially  text 
tend  to  look  fuzzy;  and  doing  any  kind  of 
high-intensity  work  on  a  TV  will  perhaps 
be  a  bit  of  a  headache. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £821.33  (£699  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Panrix0113 244  4958 
www.panrix.com 

PROS  Inexpensive  and  uniquesolutionto 
PC  construction 

CONS  IfyouoptforfortheV-Boxwithouta 
monitor,  viewing  on  a  television  will  perhaps  be 
a  bit  of  a  strain 

OVERALL  Interesting,  low-cost  alternative  to 
a  standard  PC 


FEATURES 

★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★ 

j  Simply  Systemax  P750  RV  Perf 


SIM  PLY'S  ENTRY  IS  a  small,  tidy 
looking  box,  let  down  byonlyonething: 
theCTXPR705  monitor  is  too  large.  It  is 
not  a  bad  monitor  -  far  from  it,  the 
image  is  crisp  and  thecolours  vibrant. 
It'sjustthata  15in  monitor,  oraTFT 
display,  would  have  been  more  in 
keeping  with  a  small  unobtrusive  PC. 

Pumping  along  with  its  Pentium  III 
750M  Hz,  this  machine  will  be  more  than 
adequatefor  surfing  the  net,  and  with 
M  icrosoft  Office  Small  Business  Edition 


included,  all  thesoftware 
you'll  need  is availablefor 
working  at  home. 

The  case  itself  is 
satisfyingly  small,  yet  the 
front  still  has  room  for  a 
floppy  drive,  as  well  as 
two  USB  ports  and 
headphoneand 
microphone  sockets.  A 
Compaq  DVD  isalso 
mounted  on  thefront, 
although  unlike  H  i- 
Grade's  entry,  it  is  a 
laptop  model.  There  is 
alsotheoptionof 
mounting  thecase 
vertically  with  the 
included  stand. 

0  pening  the  chassis  reveals  a  Tardis- 
like quality,  with  thecomponentsand 
the  Intel  810-based  Q-lity  FlexATX 
motherboard  neatlyfitted  in.  The 
motherboard  has  room  for  only  a  couple 
of  upgrades:  one  DIM  M  slot  isfree,  the 
other  being  filled  by  a  128M  B  PC100 
SDRAM  module;  and  there  is  one  PCI 
slot,  which  isfree becausethe Motorola 
modem  occupies  theAM  R  slot. 

Sound  isonboard,  in  theform  of  a 
Creative  SoundBlaster  PCI  128,  and  this 


pipes  out  to  Creative  SBS52  speakers. 
With  the  inclusion  of  a  microphone  and 
a  Creative  WebCam3,  with  its  maximum 
resolution  of  640  x480,  theopportunity 
is  there  for  a  bit  of  home  video  dabbling 
-  and  it  works  remarkably  well.  The 
20GB  Maxtorhard  diskisofa 
reasonable  size  for  this  task,  but  saving 
too  manyvideos  will  soon  fill  it  up. 

This  PC  looks  good,  and  the  webcam 
helps  to  make  it  fun  and  versatile.  Office 
2000  Small  Business  Edition  makes  this 
a  good  system  for  work  as  well.  0  nly  the 
large  monitor  lets  it  down.  In  our 
opinion,  it  isa  bittoo  big.  Apart  from 
this,  though,  this  is  an  excellent  machine. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £1,173.83  (£999  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Simply 08707  297  366 
www.simply.co.uk 
PROS  Small,  compact  case;  webcam 
CONS  M  onitor,  although  a  high-qualityunit, 
isa  littletoo  large  to  be  unobtrusive 
OVERALL  An  excellent  system  and  a  worthy 
winner  of  an  award  despitethesizeofthe 
monitor.  If  you  don't  mind  that,  this  is  a  very 
good  value  system 


FEATURES 

★★★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★★ 

Personal  Computer  World 


October  2000 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS  >  > 


Time  Time  Machine  750-7fVQ  Pro 


WITH  THE  FRONT  of  its  case  shaped 
like  the  heads  of  the  battle  droids  in  Star 
Wars  Episode  I,  theTimeM  achine's 
design  is  certainly  intriguing.  There's 
even  a  silver  handle  on  the  top,  in  case 
you  need  to  move  it  around.  You'll  either 
lovethe  way  it  looks,  or  loathe  it. 

Theprocessor  isa  750M  HzAthlon, 
and  with  theAM  D  750  chipset-based 
micro  ATX  M  SI  motherboard  and 
128MB  of  PC100  SDRAM  occupying 
oneoftwo  available  DIMM  slots,  this 


machine  is  no  slouch, 
despite  its  size.  Its 
SYSmark  rating  of  134 
and  Quakelll  scoreof 
29.2fpsmakethisoneof 
the  preferred  units  for 
those  looking  for  a  small 
PC  with  a  bit  of  scope  for 
game-playing.  With  its 
onboard  nVidia TNT2  64 
chip  with  32M  B  of 
SDRAM  powering  the 
graphics,  this 
performance  isn't  that 
surprising  though. 

Storagecomesinthe 
form  of  a  Fujitsu  20GB 
hard  drive,  and  there  is 
also  a  floppy  drive.  A 
Pioneer  DVD  means  you  can  read  CDs 
at  a  respectable  40-speed  and  DVDs  at 
10-speed. 

Inside  the  case  a  W  inmodem  is 
slotted  into  oneof  three  PCI  slots, 
leaving  some  room  for  upgrades.  The 
internals  are  neatly  set  out;  with  cables 
carefully  tied  back,  and  there  is  even  an 
extra  fan  to  make  sure  it  all  stays  cool. 

Audio  isonboard,  in  theform  of  a 
CreativeAudio  PCI  128.  Theoutput 
from  this  is  pumped  to  two  Time- 


branded  speakers  designed  to  match  the 
case.  The  15in  Time-branded  Samtron 
monitor,  on  theother  hand,  doesn't 
follow  suit  to  completethe  look.  The 
monitor  is  a  good  size  for  a  relatively 
unobtrusive  PC,  although  the  image 
isn't  the  sharpest  in  the  world. 

Thestandard  Timeextrasand 
software  are  included:  a  joystick  and 
gamepad  and  a  standard  software  pack, 
including  Lotus  Word  Pro  M  illennium 
for  word  processing  and  1-2-3  for 
spreadsheets,  among  other  packages. 
This  is  a  well-specced  PC  but  it  doesn't 
reallyfall  into  thesameslimlinecategory 
as  much  of  the  competition 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £821.32  (£699  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Time01282  777  555 
www.ti  meco  m  puters.co  m 
PROS  Inexpensive,  good  performance,  decent 
graphics 

CONS  Thecasewill  appeal  to  some,  but  will 
put  others  off;  larger  than  other  systems 
OVERALL  As  an  inexpensive  machine  in  a 
relatively  small  case,  this  system  is  good  value, 
if  aesthetically  a  little  different 


FEATURES 

★★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★★ 

Vi  glen  Incepta 


Strapped  onto  the 
Intel  810  motherboard  is 
a  respectably  powerful 
700M  Hz  Pentium  III,  plus 
a  single  128MB  PC100 
memory  module,  leaving 
one  DIM  M  slot  free. 
Sound  requirements  are 
onboard  in  Intel's  Sound- 
max  D  igital  Audio,  with 
output  piped  to  Altec 
Lansing  LCS33  speakers. 

The  Fujitsu  10GB  hard 
disk  isfairly small  by 
today's  standards,  but  it 
will  beadequatefor  most 
home  users.  Also  worthy 
of  note,  in  light  of  the 
smaller  hard  disk,  isthat 
the  Incepta  has  no  floppy  drive,  so 
nothing  can  be  saved  external  to  the 
machine  (although  an  external  USB  Zip 
drive,  or  something  similar,  would 
address  this  issue).  For  accessing  the 
Internet,  a  mini  PCI  modem  isfitted  into 
the  only  available  (mini)  PCI  slot,  which 
means  upgrades  all  haveto  be  external, 
and  USB  driven.  For  optical  reading,  a 
vertically  mounted,  blackTeac  DVD 
drive  is  installed  at  the  front  of  the  case. 

Driven  byonboard  graphics  isa 


THE  VIGLEN  INCEPTA  is  a  compact 
unit  indeed,  and  in  a  daring  move  away 
from  the  drab  beige  colour  of  most  cases, 
the  Incepta  comes  in  navy  blue,  with  the 
Viglen  logo  emblazoned  verticallydown 
the  fro  nt  of  the  case.  Total  ly  legacy-free, 
there  are  USB  ports  (two  front  and  two 
rear)  and  no  other  sockets  at  all -except 
to  connect  the  modem  to  a  telephone 
socket.  The  keyboard  and  mouse  use  two 
of  the  U  SBs,  leaving  two  free  for  the 
addition  of  peripherals. 


Viglen  15RX-TA  15in  TFT  flat  panel.  The 
quality  of  this  was  fairly  mediocre,  as  the 
colour  representation  and  lighting  from 
top-to-bottom  was  not  particularly 
regular.  However,  colours  were  vibrant 
and  focus  was  good.  TheTFT  panel  in 
combination  with  thesmall  case  will 
certainly  make  this  PC  a  talking  point. 

With  M  icrosoft  Works  Suite  2000, 
this  unit  has  a  strong  software  package, 
since  Word  2000  is  the  preferred  word 
processing  option;  and  for  £1,350.08 
inc  VAT,  it  isn't  too  expensive  either. 
Overall,  the  Incepta  is  small,  different 
looking,  yet  has  most  of  what  you 
require  for  a  small  fullyfunctional 
homePC. 


DETAILS 

PRICE  £1,350.08  (£1,149  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Viglen  020  8758 7000 
www.viglen.co.uk 

PROS  Small  machine  with  strong  software 
CONS  TFT  screen  wasn't  the  best  quality;  no 
removable  storage 

OVERALL  As  a  small,  stylish  looking  unit,  this 
one  is  up  there  with  the  best,  although  it's  not 
very  feature  rich 


FEATURES 

★★★ 

PERFORMANCE 

★★★ 

VALUE  FOR  MONEY 

★★★★ 

OVERALL  RATING 

★★★ 

m  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Anycolouraslongasitsbeige? 

’ll 


~  -iiiaiBaftiiiit 


A  pple's  new  C  ube  is  small ,  stylish ,  powerful  -  and  not  beige 


emailing  and  thelnternet 
becomeapossibility.Thereis 
an  obvioustelevision  screen 
resolution  issuewith  this 
solution,  and  it  does  not  have 
theversatility  of  either  the 
iM  ac  or  a  PC .  But  then  when 
theprimaryuseisonline 
gaming,  theoption  of  email 
and  web  browsing  is  an 
attractiveextra;  and  no  doubt 
web  pages  will  beoptimised 
fortelevision  viewing  in  the 
near  future,  which  will  increase 
theappeal  ofthegames 
consoleover  a  computer  as  an 
email  and  surfing  solution, 
especially  taking  thecost 
differential  into  account. 

Another  option  for  a  move 
away  from  PC  convention  is  a 
laptop  docking  station  from 
manufacturers  such  as 
H  ewl  ett-Packard .  T  h  i  s  al  I  ows  a 
laptop  to  beshared  between 
work  and  homeenvironments. 
Thelaptop  gives  the  versat  i  I  i  ty 
of  a  mobilecomputer,  but 
thereistheoption  of  docking  it 
at  a  static  location  where,  along 
with  thestation  itself,  it  attains 
all  thefunctionsof  afull  PC. 


Thedocking station  can  havea 
greater  number  of  input  and 
output  socketsthan  a  laptop, 
such  as  SCSI  and  PC  Card 
si  ots,  as  wel  I  as  al  I  o wi  n  g  f  u  rt h  er 
hard  drives  and  CD/DVD- 
ROM  drives  to  befitted.  A 
screen,  keyboard  and  mouse 
haveto  remain  with  thestation 
(which  doesn't  work  without 
thelaptop)  but  at  least  the 
overall  look  isdifferent  to  the 
conventional  PC  -  and  they 
don't  all  comein  beigeeither. 

Ultimately,  most  people 
would  liketheircomputersto 
look  good,  as  well  as  perform 
well.  Considering  theway 
current  motherboards  and 
graphics  cardslook,  PCs 
would  doubtlesslook  as  good 
astheiMaciftheinteriorwas 
visible.  Applehas shown  that 
stylecan  be  achieved  in  a 
computer.  Wesayit'stimefor 
thePC  to  undergo  asimilar 
metamorphosis  so  it  can  also 
displaya  level  of  stylishness 
morein  keeping  with  the 
modern  household  item  that 
thecomputer  has  become. 

SCOTT  MONTGOMERY 


A  computer  is  ultimately 
nothing  morethan  a 
versatiletool,  or  is  it? 
Admittedly  its  roots  aref  i  rmly 
in  therealms  of  functionality, 
butcanthemodern 
computer's  status  real  ly  be 
reduced  to  a  meretool?  With 
email  and  thelnternet  being 
used  moreand  morefor  non¬ 
work  purposes,  computers  are 
as  much  a  part  of  personal  life 
as  of  o  u  r  p rof essi  o  n  al  I  i  ves.  1 1  i  s 
thereforestrangethatthePC's 
looks  haveremained  so 
functional  when  a  morestylish 
look  would  bemorein  keeping 
with  itshomeuse. 

Asthisgroup  test  has  shown 
somestepsarebeingtaken  to 
makethePC  look  a  bit 
trendier,  but  thereisstill  along 
wayto  go  asthestandard 
colou  r  schemes  of  most  of  the 
test  systems  h  i gh  I  i ght .  0 f 
courseit  doesn't  haveto  be 
this  way,  asApplehas  shown 
withtheiMac. 

It  is  likely  that  if  you  asked 
someoneto  imaginethemost 
stylish  computerthey  could, 
their  mind  would  drift  to  the 
curvaceousall-in-oneform  of 
Apple'siMac.  What  Applehas 
observed  isthat  in  thesame 
waythat  peoplelikeobjects 
such  astheirtelephoneto  look 
a  bit  cool,  they  want  their 
computer  to  look  good  too.  As 
a  result,  theiMac  is  physically 
different  in  almost  everyway 
from  a  PC,  and  looksfar  more 
likepart  ofyourhomedezor 
thanabusine5sdevice.AII  its 
components arebuilt  into  the 
monitor  casing,  which  is 


decked  out  in  clear  plastic 
allowing  theworld  to  seethe 
slick  innards,  and  the 
keyboard  and  mousearealso 
similarly  translucent. 

Specification-wise,  theiMac 
is  not  dissimilartoaPC.lt  has 
a  processor,  a  G 3  clocked  at 
between  350M  Hz  and 
500M  H  z,  although  dueto  the 
architectureof  both  theG3 
and  the  new  G  4  processor, 
thereisno  real  comparison  of 
clock  speeds  with  Pentium  Ills 
and  Athlons.  A  comparable 
amount  of  memory  to  PCs  is 
installed,  either  64M  B  or 
128M  B;  and  thereareall  the 
other  usual  componentstoo: 
up  to  a  30GB  hard  disk,  a  CD- 
ROM /DVD  drive,  and  a  built- 
in  56K  modem. Thegraphics 
solution  is  provided  by  an  ATI 
Rage  128  Pro  with  8M  B  of 
SD  RAM ;  and  theaudio  system 
is  integrated  into  the  main 
unit.Thiscould  all  bestraight 
from  a  PC  specification  sheet, 
yet  the  packagi  ng  makes  the 
iMac  appeal  to  a  totally 
different  audience. 

And  thenightmaredoesn't 
end  therefor  thePC 
manufacturers,  becauseApple 
hasn't  been  sitting  on  its 
laurelssinceit  released  the 
iMac  and  haslet  loosethe 
Power  M  acG4  Cube.  Even  the 
namesoundslikesomething 
you'd  want  in  your  living 
room,  somewhere  between 
your  lava  lamp  and  your 
stylish  mini  hi-fi. Thecube, 
although  nottrulycube 
shaped,  is  a  mere 24.8cm  tall 
with  its  width  and  depth  both 
19.5cm,  making  it  extremely 
small  and  unobtrusive,  but  as 
powerful  a  computer  as  any 
homeuserwill  need. 

Another  threat  to 
thehomePC 
market  isthe 
Sega 
Dream- 
cast,  an 
alterna- 
tiveto 
both  the 
PC  and 
theiMac 
foremail 
and  Internet 
browsing. 

Although  primarilya 
console,  with  a  keyboard 
(which  onlycosts£20) 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


PI  CTURES COURTESY  OF  APPLE  COM  PUTER I NC 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS  >  > 


How  we  did  the  tests 


SYSmark  2000 


This  comprises  12 

application  workloads 
and  a  management 
program.  The  workloads  are 
divided  into  two  categories: 
office  productivity  and 
Internet  content  creation.  We 
run  the  benchmark  at  a 
resolution  of  1,024  x  768  in 
16bit  colour.  It  loops  three 
times,  rebooting  between 
each  workload. 

It  then  assigns  the  system  a 
performance  rating  for  each 
application,  based  on  a 
comparison  of  workload 
runtimes  between  the  system 
being  tested  and  a  fixed 
calibration  platform.  A  rating 
of  100  indicates  the  test  system 
has  performance  equal  to  that 
of  the  calibration  platform, 

200  indicates  twice  the 
performance  and  so  on.  The 
calibration  platform  is  based 
on  a  Pentium  III  450M  Hz 
processor,  an  Intel  440BX 
chipset  motherboard,  128M  B 
of  SDRAM ,  a  32M  B  Diamond 
Viper  V770  Ultra  graphics  card, 
an  IBM  DJNA  371800  and 


Windows  98  SE. 

Each  category  rating  is  a 
geometric  mean  of  the 
workload  ratings  in  that 
category.  The  overall  rating  is  a 
weighted  geometric  mean  of 
the  category  ratings. 


Office  productivity 

Corel  CorelDraw  9.0 

This  script  first  takes  an 
abstract  design,  applies  an  Art 
Stroke  to  it  and  runs  various 
filter  effects.  It  creates  and 
manipulates  a  scene  composed 
of  vector  graphics.  Next,  it 
takes  a  raster  image  and 
applies  effects.  It  creates 
several  3D  objects  and 
performs  3D  manipulations. 


Corel  Paradox  9.0 

This  performs  SQ  L-style queries 
on  a  database tableand  runsa 
'find  duplicates'  query.  It  imports 
other  text  files,  formatting  and 
exporting  each  to  HTM  L.  Then 
it  opens  up  query  forms,  enters 


Bryce  4  script 
manipulates  a 
wire  frame  scene 
and  renders  it 


charts,  applying 
graphics  and 
sound  effects, 
and  adding 
moviefiles. 


additional  data  and  produces 
reports  based  on  queries. 

M  icrosoft  Word  2000 

This  workload  invokes  word 
processing  functions,  including 
editing,  spell  checking,  search 
and  replace,  font  change,  copy 
and  paste,  print  preview,  mail 
mergefields,  insert  hyperlinks, 
background  and  table 
formatting  plus  opening  and 
viewing  HTM  L  pages. 

Microsoft  Excel  2000 

0  perations  include  closing  and 
opening  spreadsheets,  HTM  L 
pages  and  data  in  text  files,  spell 
checks,  formula  calculation, 
plotting  data,  formatting 
charts  and  cells,  analysing  data 
in  pivottables,  naming  a  cell 
and  inserting  hyperlinks. 

Microsoft  PowerPoint  2000 


Dragon  NaturallySpeaking 
Preferred  4.0 

The  script  plays  a  pre-recorded 
wavfileinto  Naturally- 
Speaking,  which  then  converts 
thewavfileto  text. 

Netscape 

Communicator  4.61 

This  opens  a  website  of  plays 
by  Shakespeare  and  selects  and 
loads  the  texts  several  times. 
Then  it  loads  a  page  consisting 
of  large  tables,  thumbnails  and 
images  and  cycles  through 
viewing  the  images. 

Internet 

content  creation 

Adobe  Premiere  5.1 

This  creates  an  animation  of 
about  16  bmp  files  and  other 
avi  clips  and  puts  transitions 
between  them.  It  superimposes 
two  audio  tracks  and  runs  the 


formatting 


3D  Mark  2000 
tests  each 
system's  DirectX 
performance 
(above)  and 
OpenGL 
performance  is 
tested  via  Q  uake 
III:  Arena  (right) 


Operations  include  spell  audio  through  filters, 

checks,  editing, 
formatting  and 
moving  pictures, 
applying 
templates, 
formatting 
tables  in  slides, 
inserting 
hyperlinks, 
applying  header 
and  footer  data, 


Adobe  Photoshop  5.5 

The  script  loads,  resizes,  zooms 
out  of  images,  applies  filters  to 
the  images,  changes  mode  and 
colour  settings,  adjusts  image 
brightness  and  contrast  and 
saves  the  image  to  a  jpeg  file. 

Avid  Elastic  Reality  3.1 

The  workload  sets  up  and 
renders  a  morph  between  two 
mpeg2-sized  images  (720  x 
480  pixels,  roughly  750KB) . 

MetaCreations  Bryce  4 

This  script  opens  an  assembled 
wire  frame  sceneand  renders  it 
to  the  final  image.  Then  a  new 
image  is  opened  and  saved  in 
M  etastream  format.  Another 
image  is  opened  and  saved  in 
an  HTM  L-compatibleformat. 

M icrosoft  Windows 
Media  Encoder  4.0 

Theinputfileisan  avi  clip  that 
is  encoded  using  the  mpeg4 
Video  Codec. 

3D  Mark  2000 

Remedy  Entertainment's  M  AX- 
FX  is  used  to  test  the  D  irectX 
performance  of  a  system.  It 
runs  two  specially  coded 
games  at  low,  medium  and 
high  resolutions.  We  ran  the 
benchmark  at  1,024  x768  in 
16bit  colour,  with  each  game 
set  to  loop  three  times.  The 
3D  Mark  is  calculated  by 
adding  theframes  per  second 
for  each  game  together  and 
multiplying  the  result  by  12. 

Quake  III 

We  tested  each  system's 
0  penG  L  performance  with 
Quake  III:  Arena  (1.11). 

The  settings  were: 
video  mode-  1,024x768, 
colour  depth  -  16bit,  full 
screen,  highest  texture  detail, 
texture  quality-  16bit, 
texture  filter  -  bilinear,  lighting 
and  lightmap. 

At  command  prompt  we  typed: 

timedemo  1 

demo  demoOOl 

This  runs  demo  1  and  records 

theframes  per  second. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


overall 


Simply  Systemax  P750  RV  Performance 
Time  M  achine  750-7f  VQ  Professional 
AJP  Neo-PC 
evesham.com  Evolution 
Viglen  Incepta 
Packard  Bell  Spirit  RF  730 
Elonex  Book  PC 
Carrera  Octan  DM  650 
Hi-Grade  Ultinet  733 
Acer  Veriton  FP 
Panrix  V-Box  Home  Theatre  PC 
Gateway  Profile  2 


101 


96 


M-Hiimaiiwii 


Internet  content  creation 


AJP  Neo-PC 
Simply  Systemax  P750  RV 
Viglen  Incepta 
Time  Machine  750-7fVQ  Pro 
Elonex  Book  PC 
evesham.com  Evolution 
Packard  Bell  Spirit  RF  730 
Carrera  Octan  DM  650 
Acer  Veriton  FP 
Hi-Grade  Ultinet  733 
Panrix  V-Box  Home  Theatre  PC 
Gateway  Profile  2 


147 


137 

136 

134 

133 

132 


107 


102 


78 


100  120  140  160 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


1,095 


1,075 


Time  Machine  750-7f  VQ  Pro 
Carrera  Octan  DM  650 
Viglen  Incepta 
evesham.com  Evolution 
Elonex  Book  PC 
AJP  Neo-PC 
Acer  Veriton  FP 
Gateway  Profile  2  DID  NOT  RUN 
Simply  Systemax  P750  RV  DID  NOT  RUN 
Hi-Grade  Ultinet  733  DID  NOT  RUN 
Panrix  V-Box  Home  Theatre  PC  DID  NOT  RUN 


2,225 


1,756 


1,171 


665 


634 


Packard  Bell  Spirit  RF  730 


DID  NOT  RUN 


BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


Simply  Systemax  P750  RV 
Time  Machine  750-7fVQ  Pro 
evesham.com  Evolution 
Viglen  Incepta 
Packard  Bell  Spirit  RF  730 
AJP  Neo-PC 
Elonex  Book  PC 
Carrera  Octan  DM  650 
Hi-Grade  Ultinet  733 
Acer  Veriton  FP 
Panrix  V-Box  Home  Theatre  PC 
Gateway  Profile  2 


Quake  III  (fps) 


Time  Machine  750-7fVQ  Pro 
Carrera  Octan  DM  650 
Viglen  Incepta 
evesham.com  Evolution 
Elonex  Book  PC 
Simply  Systemax  P750  RV 
Packard  Bell  Spirit  RF  730 
Gateway  Profile  2 
Panrix  V-Box  Home  Theatre  PC 
AJP  Neo-PC 


100  120  140 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


29.2 


24.8 


16.2 


15.4 


11.6 


10.3 


5.7 


Acer  Veriton  FP  4.3 


500  1,000  1,500  2,000  2,500 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


Hi-Grade  Ultinet  733  DID  NOT  RUN 
0 


10  20 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


30 


» 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000  •  JjJ 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS  >  > 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS  >  > 


Table  of  features 

T.n 

j,  ^ _ 

£st' 

Manufacturer 

Acer 

AJP 

Carrera 

Elonex 

EVESHAM.COM 

Model  Name 

Veriton  FP 

Neo-PC 

Octan  DM  650 

Book  PC 

Evolution 

Price  inc  VAT  (ex  VAT) 

£2,113.82  (£1,799) 

£1,976.35  (£1,682) 

£938.93  (£749) 

£1,065  (£899) 

£1,291.32  (£1,099) 

■ 

Telephone 

0870900  2237 

020  8208  9755 

020  8307  2800 

020  8452  4444 

0800  038  0800 

Hardware  specs 

Processor 

Pentium  III  500MHz 

Pentium  III  750M Hz 

AMD  Duron 650MHz 

Pentium  III  733MHz 

Pentium  III  700MHz 

RAM/type 

128MB/ PC  100 

128MB/ PC  100 

128MB/ PC  100 

128MB/PC133 

128MB/PC133 

Occupied  RAM  slots/ spare  RAM  slots 

1/1 

1/1 

1/2 

1/1 

1/0 

M  ax  memory  in  this  configuration 

384MB 

256MB 

1.1GB 

384MB 

128MB 

Maximum  memory  supported  by  motherboard 

512MB 

256MB 

1.5GB 

512MB 

256MB 

Hard  disk  (manufacturer  and  model) 

Quantum  Fireball 

Plus  KA 

Quantum  Fireball 

QML20400LB 

Western  Digital 

WD15  3BA 

Fujitsu  MPE3273AH 

Maxtor  52049U4 

HD  size/ interface 

13GB/EIDE 

20.4GB/EIDE 

15GB/EIDE 

27.3GB/EIDE 

20GB/EIDE 

Storage  drive  model  and  manufacturer 

N/A 

N/A 

Ricoh  Combo  MP9060 

N/A 

Samsung  Combo  SM-304B 

Size  of  storage  drive  media/  storage  drive  interface 

N/A 

N/A 

650MB/EIDE 

N/A 

650MB/  EIDE 

3.5in  floppy  drive 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

Motherboard  manufacturer 

Acer 

Mitac 

Biostar 

MSI 

Intel 

Model/  chipset 

V66LT/ Intel  BX 

67X/ Intel  440BX 

M7VKA/VIA  KT133 

M  S6174/ Intel  810E 

MO810E  Desktop/Intel  810E 

Expansion  and  I/O 

No  of  3.5/5.25in  bays 

1/0 

1/0 

3/2 

2/1 

1/1 

No  of  free3.5/5.25in  bays 

0/0 

0/0 

1/1 

0/0 

0/0 

Noof  PCI/ISA/ shared/ AMR  slots 

1/0/0/0 

1/0/0/0 

2/ 0/0/1 

2/ 0/0/0 

1/0/ 0/0 

Noof  free  PCI/ISA/  shared/ AMR  slots 

1/0/0/0 

1/0/0/0 

2/ 0/0/0 

1/0/0/0 

o/o/o/o 

No  of  USB/ serial/ parallel/PS/2 

2/ 1/1/ 2 

2/ 1/1/ 2 

2/2/1/2 

2/ 2/ 1/2 

4/0/0/0 

Multimedia 

DVD  manufacturer/ model 

CD-ROM:  Panasonic 

CR175 

Hitachi  GD-S100 

Ricoh  Combo  MP9060 

CD-ROM:  Mitsumi 

SR242S 

Samsung  Combo 

SM-304B 

DVD  speed/ interface 

N/A 

6X/EIDE 

4X/EIDE 

N/A 

4X/EIDE 

Sound  card  manufacturer 

ESS 

Crystal  (onboard) 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Creative  (onboard) 

Sound  card  model 

Solo 

Sound  Fusion  Audio 

VIA  KT133 

Yamaha  AL-XG 

Audio  Device 

SB  Audio  PC  1128 

Speakers  (manufacturer  and  model) 

Integrated 

Integrated 

Altec  Lansing  ACS22 

Creative  SBS20 

Creative  SBS52 

Graphics  card  manufacturer  and  model 

ATi  Rage  LT  Pro  (onboard) 

Onboard 

OEM  TNT2  M64 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Chipset 

Rage  LT  Pro 

ATi  3D  Rage  LT  Pro 

TNT2M64 

Intel  810E 

Intel  810E 

RAM /max  RAM  and  type 

8MB/ SDRAM 

8MB/SDRAM 

32MB/SDRAM 

4MB/ SDRAM 

4MB/ SDRAM 

Graphics  card  interface 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Onboard 

M  onitor  manufacturer /  model 

Integrated  flat  panel 

Panasonic  integrated 
MEDTCF02QEF 

LG  775N 

ELXMN017HS 

Vibrant  VM52RDA-E02 

M  onitor  size/  max  viewable  diagonal 

15in/15in 

15.1in/15.1in 

17in/16in 

17in/16in 

15in/13.8in 

Maximum  resolution  and  refresh  (Hz) 

1,024x768/60 

1,024x768/60 

1,280x720/75 

1,280x1,024/75 

1,024x768/60 

Other  information 

Modem  manufacturer  and  model 

Standard  56K 

PCI  modem 

Apollo  Fax/ Modem 

FM560 

HAMR  5600  Voice 

Modem 

Conexant 

HCF  V.90  56KPCI 

Diamond  Supra  SST 

56i  Pro  DF 

Misc  hardware 

Intel  82558-based 

integrated  Ethernet,  IrDA 
port,  ASM  Pro  Suite  V.l 

AMD  Family  10/ 100 
Ethernet  adaptor, 

IrDA  port 

None 

Intel  82559  Fast 

Ethernet  (onboard),  DFPI 

connector,  IrDA  port 

Intel  Ethernet 

LAN  onboard 

Bundled  software 

None 

MS  Works  Suite  2000 

Lotus  SmartSuite 

Millennium 

MS  Office  2000 

Small  Business  Edition 

MS  Works  Suite  2000 

I]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Gateway 

Hi-Grade 

Packard  Bell 

Panrix 

Simply 

Time 

VlGLEN 

Profile  2 

UltiNet  733 

Spirit  RF  730 

V-Box  Home 

Theatre  PC 

Systemax  P750 

RV  Performance 

Time  Machine 

7 50- 7f  VQ  Pro 

Incepta 

£1,643.82  (£1,399) 

£1,373.58  (£1,169) 

£1,899  (£1,616) 

£821.33  (£699) 

£1,173.83  (£999) 

£821.32  (£699) 

£1,350.08  (£1,149) 

_ 

0800  552  000 

020  8532  6111 

01628  508  200 

0113  244  4958 

08707  297  366 

01282  777  555 

020  8758  7000 

Intel  Celeron  500MHz 

Pentium  III  733MHz 

Pentium  III  733MHz 

Celeron  600MHz 

Pentium  III  750MHz 

AMD  750MHz 

Pentium  III  700MHz 

64MB/ PC  100 

128MB/PC133 

128MB/PC100 

128MB/ PC  100 

128MB/ PC  100 

128MB/ PC  100 

128MB/ PC  100 

N/A 

1/1 

1/1 

1/1 

1/1 

1/1 

1/1 

N/A 

384MB 

384MB 

384MB 

384MB 

384MB 

384MB 

N/A 

512MB 

512MB 

512MB 

512MB 

512MB 

512MB 

IBM  Deskstar 

DPTA-372050 

Fujitsu  MPE3204AH 

Maxtor  32049U  3 

Maxtor  91521U3 

Maxtor  52049U  4 

Fujitsu  MPE3204AT 

Fujitsu  MPF3102AT 

20.5GB/EIDE 

20.4GB/EIDE 

20.4GB/EIDE 

15.3GB/EIDE 

20GB/EIDE 

20GB/EIDE 

10GB/EIDE 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

N/A 

_ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

Gateway 

Chaintech 

MSI 

PC-Chips 

Q-lity 

MSI 

Intel 

_ 

Intel  810 

6SLV/SiS  630 

M  S-6303/  Intel  810E 

Panrix  OEM/ Intel  810 

CP810-F1/  Intel  810 

MS6316/AMD  750 

GS810/ Intel  810 

N/A 

2/1 

1/1 

2/1 

1/0 

3/2 

1/0 

0/0 

0/0 

0/0 

0/0 

0/0 

1/1 

0/0 

N/A 

0/0/ 0/1 

2/ 0/0/1 

O/O/O/O 

1/0/ 0/1 

3/ 0/0/0 

lmini  PCI/0/0/0 

N/A 

o/o/o/o 

2/0/0/0 

O/O/O/O 

1/0/0/0 

2/ 0/0/0 

o/o/o/o 

_ 

4/ 0/0/0 

2/ 1/1/2 

2/ 1/1/ 2 

2/0/ 1/2 

4/ 1/1/ 2 

2/ 1/1/2 

4/ 0/0/0 

Toshiba  DVD  SD-C2302 

Asus  E608 

Pioneer  DVD  114 

Panasonic  SR-8584A 

Compaq  DRD-U624 

Pioneer  DVD-104S 

Teac  DV-25E 

12X/EIDE 

8X/EIDE 

lOx/EIDE 

6X/EIDE 

6X/EIDE 

lOx/EIDE 

5X/EIDE 

Soundmax 

SiS  (onboard) 

Onboard 

C-Media 

Creative  (onboard) 

Creative  (onboard) 

Onboard 

AudioCodec  97 

SiS  7018 

Intel  810E 

CM18738/C3DX  PCI 

SB  Audio  PC  1128 

SB  Audio  PC  1128 

Intel  810  Soundmax 

Digital  Audio 

Integrated 

Integrated 

NXT  FPS-IEP(B) 

Creative  Soundworks  Digital 

Creative  SBS52 

Time  speakers 

Altec  Lansing  LCS33 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Intel  810 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Intel  810 

SiS  630 

Intel  810E 

Onboard 

Intel  810 

nVidia  TNT2M64 

Intel  810 

4MB/ SDRAM 

8MB  of  system  memory 

4MB  SDRAM 

2MB  system  memory 

4MB  SDRAM 

32MB/ SDRAM 

4MB/ SDRAM 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Onboard 

Gateway  PFL2-15A 
(integrated) 

X-TAL  6220  TFT 

Packard  Bell 

Slinwiew  S525 

ViewSonic  E70 

CTX  PR705 

Samtron  55E  (M)  (plus) 

Viglen  15RX-TA 
flat  panel 

15.1in/15.1in 

15in 

15in/15in 

17in/16in 

17in/16in 

15in/14in 

15in/15in 

1,024x768/60 

1,024x768/60 

1,024x768/60 

1,024x768/75 

1,280x1,024/75 

1,024x768/75 

1,024x768/75 

Motorola  SM  56  AC-L 

Standard  AMR  modem 

AMR  modem 

MR  2800-W 

C-Media  56K 

Motorola  SM 56  AC-L 

WinModem56K 

3Com  Mini  PCI 

Datafax  Modem  56K 

Intel  21145-based 

phoneline/  Ethernet 

controllers 

2x  FireWire  sockets,  DVI, 
S-Video,  composite  out 
IrDA  port,  SiS  900 

PCI  Fast  Ethernet 

Microphone 

SiS  900  Network 

(onboard) 

Creative  WebCam3 

Microphone 

Joystick,  gamepad 
headset  &  microphone 

Network  Card  10/100 

Intel-based  (onboard) 

MS  Works  Suite  2000 

Lotus  SmartSuite 

Millennium 

MS  Works  &  Word  2000, 
Packard  Bell  Spirit  CDs 

MS  Works  2000 

MS  Office  2000 

Small  Business  Edition 

Time  standard  software 

pack,  MS  Works 

MS  Works  Suite  2000 

Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000  •  jj|f 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS 


Editor's  Choice 


The  judging  this  month  was 

exceptionally  hard,  because  so 
many  of  the  systems  were  good 
in  different  ways.  The  manufacturers 
followed  three  directions.  First,  Time 
and  Carrera  opted  for  basically  a 
standard  PC,  but  in  the  smallest 
conventional  case  available.  These  units 
are  not  only  the  most  upgradable,  but 
are  also  fast  enough  to  indulge  in  a  little 
gaming.  Both  havean  onboard  TNT2 
chip  and  32M  B  of  video  SDRAM ,  so  the 
graphics  processing,  although  not  state- 
of-the-art,  is  good  enough  to  run  games. 
So,  if  it  is  just  a  small  PC  you  need,  with 
some  upgradability  and  a  bit  of  pace, 
then  either  of  these  will  be  in  the  running. 

Other  entrants  are  built  around  a  fully 
integrated  unit,  with  speakers  and  a  TFT 
screen  attached  to  the  main  bodyof  the 
PC  and  only  the  keyboard  and  mouse 
plugging  in.  This  is  a  lot  more  expensive 
and  most  of  the  models  have  been 
designed  more  for  business  environments 
than  as  cheap  and  stylish  home  PCs.  As  a 
result,  theyhavevirtuallyno  optionsfor 
upgrade,  as  the  design  is  for  the  user  who 
wants  something  to  look  good  as  well  as 
perform.  But  then  let's  face  it,  an 
amateur  'hotrod'  PC  builder  will  want  a 
giant  case,  with  lots  of  fans  and  good 
two-hand  access,  not  a  curvy  all-in-one 
case  with  built-in  TFT.  The  bottom  line  is 
that  this  type  of  unit  fits  a  niche,  and  if 
money  is  no  object  it's  worth  a  look. 

AJ  P's  entrant  has  a  screen  that  almost 
looks  like  it's  hovering  in  front  of  the 
rest  of  the  case,  while  the  Gateway 
Profile  2  has  a  TFT  screen  image  was 
second  to  none. 


H  i-C  rade's  U  ItiN  et  is  a  versatile  and  stylish 
system  you'd  be  proud  to  show  off 


Thethird  approach  was  to  useultra- 
small  cases  not  much  bigger  than  a  stack 
of  five  PCI/I/  issues.  In  combination  with 
a  TFT  flat  panel,  these  are  as  small  and 
unobtrusive  as  a  PC  can  bewhilestill 
being  functional.  Unfortunately,  some  of 
these  units  came  with  17in  monitors. 
This  is  a  pity  as  it  doesn't  matter  how 
small  the  PC  case  is  if  you  need  to  find 
space  for  a  large  monitor.  The  PCs  from 
Viglen  and  H  i-Grade,  by  contrast,  have 
small  cases  and  TFT  screens,  which  in 
our  eyes,  was  the  most  stylish  combina¬ 
tion.  Unfortunately,  in  Viglen's  case  this 
wasn't  backed  up  by  lots  of  features  and 
the  TFT  screen  was  not  the  best. 

The  winners 

This  month's  Editor's  Choice  is  the 
H  i-Grade  U  ItiN  et  733.  This  unit  has 
everything  a  small  PC  should  have  to  be 
versatile,  while  being  so  stylish  that  you'd 
actively  encourage  people  to  look  at  it 
when  they  visit  your  home.  The  case  is 
small  and  compact,  yet  FI  i-Grade  has 
managed  to  fit  in  a  full-size  Asus  DVD 
and  afloppydrive.  Not  onlydo  these  feel 
more  robust  to  use  than  laptop 
equivalents  (used  in  manyof  theother 
units),  but  also  in  the  event  of  failure  of 
either  of  these  drives,  there  will  be  a  great 
financial  saving  when  replacing  them. 

The  U  ItiN  et  733  has  such  a  vast  array 
of  versatile  inputs,  that  the  competition  is 
left  stand ing.  W  here  some  of  the  systems 
in  this  group  test  had  USB  and  little  else, 

FI  i-G  rade's  PC  not  only  offers  USB,  but 
also  DVI,  composite  video,  S- Video,  as 
well  as  being  one  of  thefirst  systems 
we've  seen  with  integrated  FireWire 


T he  curvy  G  ateway  stood  out  with  its  high 
spec ,  great  screen  and  low  cost 


sockets.  This  will  appeal  to  the  video¬ 
editing  enthusiast,  and  the  733M  FH z 
processorand  128MB  of  SDRAM  is 
adequate  to  battlethrough  the 
processing  of  this  and  any  other  task. 
There's  a  spare  DIMM  socket  to  boost 
the  memory  to  384M  B.  As  for  storage,  a 
good-sized  20.4GB  Fujitsu  hard  disk  gives 
plenty  of  room,  although  video  editing 
will  soon  use  up  the  space.  Completing 
the  stylish  ensemble  is  a  TFT  screen.  The 
U  ItiN  et  is  small,  good  looking,  versatile 
and  well  priced.  Need  wesaymore? 

As  for  this  month's  Highly 
Commended  awards,  thefirst  goes  to 
the  Gateway  Profile  2.  Cheapest  of  the 
integrated  units,  this  machine  looks 
almost  organic  with  barely  a  straight 
edge  on  it.  TheTFT  screen  was  second  to 
none  in  the  tests,  with  a  bright,  sharp, 
focused  and  regular  image,  which  is 
presented  at  a  good  viewing  height. 
Driven  by  a  Celeron  500M  FI  z  backed  up 
by64M  B  of  SDRAM ,  it  isn't  the  highest 
specification,  but  as  a  stylish  PC,  it  wins 
thefirst  award  hands  down. 

The  second  award  goes  to  the  Simply 
Systemax  P750  RV  Performance. 
Despite  its  large  screen,  there  is  just  too 
much  about  this  PC  to  not  recommend 
it.  The  monitor  is  of  excellent  quality,  our 
only  criticism  being  over  its  physical  size. 
Thesmall  case  houses  the  Pentium  III 
750M  H z;  M  icrosoft  Office SBE  ensures 
that  all  officeapplicationswill  be 
handled  easily;  and  Creative's  WebCam 
makes  it  a  fun  and  versatile  system  as 
well.  As  an  overall  bundle  it  may  not  be 
the  most  unobtrusive,  but  it  certainly 
deserves  a  FI  ighly  Commended  award. 


Simply' s  large  screen  was  not  enough  to  put 
usoff  and  the  WebCam  adds  a  bit  of  fun 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  BS 


SLIMLINE  SYSTEMS 


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Gamers  are  always  looking  for  the  best  and  fastest  graphics 
cards,  so  we  took  a  look  at  14  of  the  best  around  to  see  how 
well  they  performed  under  rigorous  tests  in  our  labs 

Over  the  past  few  years  and  since  our  last  group  test  back  in 
December,  graphics  cards  have  undergone  many  changes. 

W  ith  the  rendering  process  moving  from  the  PC's  CPU  to  the 
graphics  card's  GPU  (graphics  processing  unit)  together  with 
increases  in  memory  size,  these  cards  have  now  become  very 
desirable  upgrades  -  especially  for  the  gaming  enthusiast.  This 
demand  for  top-quality  graphics  and  3D  acceleration  continues  to  be  fuelled  bythe 
gaming  community  and  has  given  rise  to  a  very  competitive  market  akin  to  the  one 
being  thrashed  out  between  PC  processor  manufacturers. 

0  ne  of  the  main  players  in  this  field  is  nVidia  and  its  release  of  the  GeForce 
256  GPU  last  year  heralded  a  new  era  in  graphics  card  technology.  The  card  had  its 
own  T&L  (Transform  &  Lighting)  enginethat  ultimatelytook  load  awayfrom  the 
CPU.  Barely  six  months  later,  and  in  true  Intel/ AM  D  style  nVidia  released  the 
GeForce2  GTS  chipset  to  supplant  the  older  card.  This  runs  faster  and  cooler, 
and  has  been  incorporated  into  manyof  today's  graphics  boards.  However,  nVidia 
is  not  alone,  with  the  likes  of  ATi  and  3dfx  producing  cards  based  solely  on  their 
own  chip  designs. 

So,  to  find  out  who  has  made  the  best  use  of  nVidia's  technology,  and  to  see  how 
the  independent  contenders  fair,  PCI/1/  has  rounded  up  14  of  the  best  and  latest 
cards  and  challenged  each  to  run  our  gauntlets. 


contents 

196  3dfxVoodoo5  5500 
AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe 

197  AsusV7700  Deluxe 
AsusV7700  Pure 

199  ATi  All-In-Wonder  128  Pro 
ATi Radeon 

200  Creative  3D  Blaster 
GeForce2  GTS 
ELSAGIadiacGeForce2 
GTS  32MB 

202  ELSA  GladiacGeForce2 
GTS  64MB 
GigabyteGA-GF2000 

203  Hercules  3D  Prophet  II  32MB 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  II  64M  B 

204  M  atroxM  illennium  G400  M  ax 
M  SI  M  S-StarForce815 

205  FSAA  explained 

206  How  we  did  the  tests 

208  Performance  results 

210  Features  table 

213  Editor's  Choice 

•  G  raphics  cards  tested  and  reviewed  byRiyad 

Emeran,  Scott  M  ontgomery  and  jalal  1/1/  erf  alii 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  1Q| 


GRAPHICS  CARDS  >  > 


3dfx  Voodoo5  5500 


WHEN  WE  LOOKED  afihefull  retail 
release  of  the  Voodoo5  5500  last  month 
we  had  warmed  to  it  a  littlesincethe 
initial  preview  the  previous  month.  That 
said,  it'sonlywhen  theVoodoo  isup 
against  a  full  range  of  its  peers  that  its 
inadequacies  becometrulyevident. 


Performance  results  show 
it  languishing  nearthebottom 
of  almost  every  graph.  When 
we  first  heard  about  the 
Voodoo5  at  Comdex  last 
N  ovember  we  were  expecting 
itto  wipethefloorwith  its 
peers,  dueto  its  dual-chip 
configuration,  but 
unfortunately  it  didn't  live  up 
to  expectations.  3dfx  has  also 
chosen  not  to  equip  the 
Voodoo5  with  either 
transform  and  lighting  (T&L) 
or  hardware  environment 
bump  mapping  features. 

What  3dfx has  equipped 
theVoodoo5  with  isfull 
scene  anti-aliasing  (FSAA), 
which  basically  blurs  the 
edges  of  polygons  to  make 
3D  models  have  smoother 
curves.  There  are,  however,  a 
coupleof  problems  with  this 
feature.  First,  the  performance  takes  a 
serious  hit  when  the  FSAA  is  applied  and 
second,  both  theGeForce2  and  the 
Radeon  chipsets  also  support  it.  That 
said,  the  FSAA  on  theVoodoo  does  look 
very  good,  especially  on  games  such  as 
Tomb  Raider,  and  theVoodoo  has  the 


added  advantage  of  having  the  largest 
back  catalogue  of  3D  titles  dueto  the 
proprietary  3dfxGLide  API.  This  means 
that  you  could  go  back  and  playthefirst 
Tomb  Raider  episode  with  superior 
graphics,  should  you  want  to. 

As  well  asthetwo  VSA-100  chips, 
there's  also  64M  B  of  memory  and  a 
power  socket.  This  board  draws  so 
much  powerthattheAGP  slot  alone 
can't  supply  it  with  enough  so  it  has  to 
be  connected  directly  to  your  power 
supply.  This  board  is  absolutely  huge,  so 
makesure  your  drive  cage  won't  get  in 
the  way  before  you  buy. 

Ultimately,  theVoodoo5  can't 
compete  on  performance,  but  if  you 
want  to  get  the  best  from  your  back 
cataloguegames  it's  worth  considering. 


DETAILS 

★★★ 

PRICE  £210.32  (£179  exVAT) 

CONTACT  dabs.com  0800  138 5154 

www.3dfx.com 

PROS  Reasonably  cheap,  good  backward 
compatibility 

CONS  Poor  performance,  lack  of  features 
OVERALLTheVoodoo  is  eclipsed  bythe 
competition  that  has  better  performance  and 
mo  re  features 


I  Open  PA256  Deluxe 


req  u  i  red .  T  h  e  so  f  t  w  a  re  a  I  so 
includesan  OpenGPU  utility 
that  displays thetemperature 
of  your  card,  along  with 
voltages  across  the  memory 
and  GPU,  as  well  asthefan's 
current  speed. For  the 
compulsive  overclocker,  this 
same  utility  can  be  used  to 
wind  thefrequencyof  the  core 
and  memoryupto  255M  Hz 
and  450M  H  z  respectively.  The 
card  is  set  to  nVidia's 
recommended  200M  Hz  core 
and  333M  Hzmemory 
frequency. 

Trying  out  the  utility  we 
found  a  few  extra  frames 
could  be  sucked  out  of  the 
card  by  increasing  the 
frequencies  byaround  10  per 
cent;  anyhigherthan  this  and 
it  became  unstable.  You  can 
also  get  quick  access  to  the 
card'sBIOSduring  POST  (PowerOn  Self 
Test),  by  pressing  the  Insert  key.  This 
allows  you  to  reduce  the  overclocking 
before  the  operating  system  boots,  if 
you've  pushed  it  beyond  its  limits. 

AO  pen  hasgonefor  a  conventional 
green  PCB  look.  A  riser  board  sits  above 


THE  AO  PEN  PA256 

easiest  of  all  the  cards  tested  to  install. 

M  ost  were  fairly  simple,  but  the  AO  pen 
involved  only oneclick,  then  all  the 
relevant  software  is  transferred  to  your 
system,  saving  you  thetroubleof  trawling 
the  CD  for  drivers,  which  some  cards 


themain  card,  with  the  hardware  for  the 
S-Video  socket  built  into  it.  The32M  B  of 
SGRAM  sits  on  both  surfaces. 

The  AO  pen's  performance  was 
among  the  best,  regularly  beating  all  but 
the64M  B  GeForce2  cards,  and  with 
28.5fps in  Quakelll  at  1,600x1,200 
with  32bit  colour  and  textures,  it's  only 
marginally  behind  the  ELSA  Gladiac 
64M  B  which  managed  only  28.7fps  at 
thesame  resolution  and  colour  depth. 

With  its  easy  install,  acopyof  Inter- 
Video's  WinDVD  2000  and  a  coupleof 
games,  the  AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe  is  an 
excellent  card.  If  you  wantto  playQuake 
III  with  a  GeForce2  card,  and  want  itto 
look  its  best,  this  is  worth  a  look. 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £249  (£212  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Majestic  Technologies 
0845  6000 144  www.aopen.nl 
PROS  Excellent  perform  a  nee  from  a  32  M  B 
card 

CONS  M ore expensivethan other 32MB 
models 

OVERALL  This  card  is  one  of  the  best 
performing  32M  B  cards  in  thetest.  With  a 
good  software bundleand  TV-out,  you  could 
do  a  lot  worse 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Asus  V7700  Deluxe 


up  and  running  straight  away. 

Carrying  on  thetradition 
of  its  'Deluxe'  cards,  Asus  has 
included  its  3D  glasses  that 
are  meant  to  create  a  virtual 
reality  environment  for 
gameplay.  We  were  not 
impressed  as  the  3D  effect  is 
minimal  and  makes  on-screen 
text  difficult  to  resolve. 

The  board  hasthesame 
cosmetic  circular  fan  as  the 
V7700  Pure,  bordered  bythe 
DDRSGRAM  memory  chips. 
These  equate  to  a  total  of 
2MB,  running  at  two  times 
166M  Hz-  typical  of  most  of 
the  nVidia  GeForce2  GTS 
boards.TheGPU  coreis 
clocked  at  200M  H  z  with  the 
option  of  increasing  this  to 
220M  Hz  using  the  bundled 
Tweak  Utility.  Using  thesame 
tool  the  memory  frequency 
can  be  pushed  to  364M  Hz  if  you  dare. 

In  terms  of  performance,  the  V7700 
Deluxe  put  in  excellent  scores  in  most  of 
the  tests.  At  a  resolution  of  1,280  x 
1,024  with  16bit  colour  the  card  ranked 
third  with  a  3DM  ark scoreof  4,906. 
Elevating  the  resolution  to  1,600  x  1,200 


BASED  ON  THE  V7700  (below),  this 
Asus  all-round  multimedia  card  comes 
with  a  variety  of  outputs  that  extend  its 
versatility.  These  include  composite  and 
S-Video  out  ports  as  well  as  an  S-Video 
in  port  and  it  has  all  the  necessary 
S-Video  and  composite  leads  to  get  you 


in  16bit,  put  the  Deluxe  in  fourth  place 
with  a  scoreof  3,702.  As  for  Quake  III 
theV7700  Deluxedid  not  fall  beyond 
fifth  place  at  all  the  settings,  with  frame 
ratesof  77.5  and  27.3for  1,280x1, 024 
in  16bit  colour  and  1,600x1,200  in 
32bit  colour,  respectively.  Test  Drive 6 
frame  rates  are  adequate  apart  from  the 
fail  in  the  1,600  x  1,200  at  16bit  test, 
and  the f lickery  22fps  at  32bit. 

D  river  installation  went  smoothly 
and  you  get  a  good  selection  of  software. 
The  card  also  comes  with  Asus  Live 
Utilityto  view  and  capture  video  from 
thevideo  input  port. 

Ratherthan  appealingto  the  full-on 
gamer  who  wants  a  decent  level  of 
refreshing  frames  with  great  detail,  this 
card  will  find  a  different  market.  You  pay 
a  premium  for  the  extra  features  though. 


DETAILS 

★★★ 

PRICE  £284  (£243  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Ultimate  Hardware 
0845  1000  170 

www.ultimate-hardware.co.uk 
PROS  A  decent  and  versatile  performer 
CONS  Relatively  expensive 
OVERALL  A  good  set  of  features  for  the  video 
enthusiast,  or  those  concerned  with  security 


A  sus  V7700  Pure 


motherboards,  wasoneof  thefirst 
manufacturers  to  utilise  thenVidia 
GeForce2  GTS  chipset  in  a  retail  graphics 
board.  The  no-frills  design  of  the  Asus 
V7700  Pureisverysimilarto  nVidia's 
reference  card  wepreviewed  back  in  July. 


TheGeForce2  consumes  less 
power  and  therefore  produces 
less  heat  than  theoriginal 
GeForce.  This  suggests  that 
thecircular  heatsinkon  the 
V7700  is  more  cosmetic, 
ratherthan  offering  any  extra 
cooling  over  a  standard 
square  heatsink. 

Like  most  of  the  other 
GeForce2-powered  cards 
here,  thecoreof theGPU  on 
theV7700  is  clocked  at 
200M  Hz,  whilethe32M  B 
of  DDR  memory  runsalong 
at  333M  Hz.  In  3DM  ark 
at  1,280x1,024  with  16bit 
colour,  the  V7700  scored 
an  adequate4,843,  which 
ranks  this  card  in  ninth  place. 
Likeall  theother  32M  B 
GeForce2  cards  tested  this 
month,  the  V7700  failed  to 
completethe3DM  arktest  at 
200  with  32bit  colour. 

U  pgrading  to  the  latest  drivers  when 
theyare  released  may  resolve  this.  In  the 
Quake  III  tests  at  1,280x1,024  with 
16bit  colour,  thecard  scored  76.2fps 
placing  it  slap  bang  in  the  middle  of  the 
group.  The V7700  also  cametop  with  a 


very  respectable  73fps  in  Test  D  rive  6  at 
the  same  resolution  settings. 

Although  this  model  lacks  the  variety 
of  outputs  seen  on  theV7700  Deluxe, 
you  havetheoption  of  adding  aTV-out 
module  at  a  later  date.  For  software, 
Asus  has  included  SmartDoctor  and 
Tweak  Utility,  allowing  you  to  monitor 
and  adjust  such  hardware  settings  as 
fan  speed  and  cooling,  overclocking, 
overheating,  and  the  AGP  power  level. 
Asus  DVD2000  and  a  games  package 
are  also  bundled  so  that  you  can  watch 
DVDs  and  begin  gaming  on  your  PC. 

At  £269.07  inc  VAT  thisGeforce2 
model  is  a  little  overpriced  and  for  the 
extra  money  you  do  not  get  any  extra 
features.  Fora  little  more  cash,  you 
could  go  for  either  of  thetwo  Editor's 
Choices. 


DETAILS 

★★★ 

PRICE  £269.07  (£229  exVAT) 

CONTACT  dabs.com  0800  138  5144 
www.dabs.com 

PROS  The  chipset  and  software  utilities 
CONS  Expensive;  no  hard  ware  features 
OVERALL  A  middle-of-the-road  graphics  card 
that  neither  shone  nor  under-performed  - 
difficultto  recommend  because  of  the  price 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


GRAPHICS  CARDS 


ATI  All-ln-Wonder  128  Pro 


INCLUSION  OFTHIScard  fromATi 
may  seem  misplaced  in  what  is  a  group 
test  of  fast  gaming  cards.  That  it  is 
included  is  testament  to  its  versatility 
and  its  niche  in  the  video  card  market.  It 
is  an  ideal  solution  for  those  interested 
in  playing  DVDsorediting video. 


Although  it  is  not  thefastest 
3D  card  in  theworld,  when  it 
comes  to  connectivity,  it  is  a 
high-quality  offering  that 
ischeaperthantheAsus 
V7700  Deluxe,  which  has 
similar  features. 

Based  on  ATi's  Rage  128 
Pro  chip,  thenameAll-ln- 
Wonder  is  no  misnomer 
when  the  possibilities  for 
connectivity  are  considered. 
Notonlydoesit  havea 
multitudeof  input/output 
options  (including  S-Video 
and  compositeout),  but 
cables  are  also  supplied  to 
ensure  you  have  everything 
included  in  the  boxto  attach 
your  video  peripherals. 

W  ith  ATi  cards  known  for 
quality  DVD  playback  dueto 
their  excellent  motion 
compensation,  the  All-ln- 
Wonder  removes  the  need  to  buy  a 
separate  M  PEG2  decoder.  This  second 
card  is  usually  required  to  gain  the  level 
of  high-quality  DVD  playback  achieved 
as  standard  with  ATi  cards,  and  as  all 
the  cabling  is  included  to  connect  your 
PC  to  yourTV  (and  with  inclusion  of  a 


3.5mm  audio  jackto  stereo  phono 
converter,  to  connect  your  sound  card 
to  your  hi-fi),  this  is  an  ideal  solution  for 
you  to  turn  your  living  room  into  an 
incredible  home  theatre.  There's  even  a 
built-in  TV  tuner,  complete  with  Teletext 
thrown  into  the  bundle. 

Admittedly,  at  the  resolutions  we 
weretesting,  the  performance  wasn't 
wonderful  for  3D  gaming.  But  then  if 
you  don't  mind  playing  Q  uake  III  at 
1,024x768  in  16bit,  it  will  be  more  than 
adequate.  If  your  main  concern  is  video 
editing  or  DVD  viewing,  though,  this 
card  is  ideal.  Cheaper  than  most  of  the 
other  entrants,  the  ATi  All-ln-Wonder 
128  Pro  is  excellent  value  and  extremely 
versatile. 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £169.20  (£144  exVAT) 

CONTACT  dabs.com  0800  138  5154 

www.dabs.com 

PROS  Incrediblyversatilecard  ideal  forthose 
with  an  interest  in  DVD  and  video  editing 
CONS  Not  a  gaming  card 
OVERALL  Overall  If  gaming  is  not  your  thing, 
then  the  All-ln-Wonder  is  an  excellent  card  for 
everything  else  you  might  want  to  do  with  your 
PC  and  video 


ATi  Radeon 


WE  PREVIEWED  the  ATi  Radeon  in 
August  when  it  looked  like  ATi  was 
about  to  pull  something  very  special  out 
of  the  bag.  The  production  card  proves 
that  our  initial  reaction  was  justified  and 
that  ATi  has  produced  a  very  impressive 
graphics  solution.  It's  been  a  whilesince 


ATi  has  come  up  with  a 
cutting-edge  graphics 
chipset,  but  the  Radeon  is  a 
step  in  the  right  direction. 

Theoriginal  specwasfor 
a  200M  Hz  chip  speed  with 
corresponding  200M  Hz  DDR 
memory,  doubling  up  to 
400M  Hz.  Unfortunately  a 
lack  of  fast  DDR  memory  has 
resulted  in  the  production 
Radeon  boardssportinga 
183M  Hzchip  with  64M  B  of 
183M  Hz  DDR  memory 
doubling  up  to  366M  Hz.  This 
puts  the  processor  speed 
17M  Hz  behind  theGeForce2 
chip,  but  the  memory  speed 
33M  Hzahead. 

Performance-wisethe 
Radeon  couldn't  keep  up 
with  the  GeForce2  cards  in 
16bit  colour,  but  switching 
to  32bitcoloursawthe 
Radeon  rising  to  thetop  of  the 
performance  chart.  The  GeForce2 
chipset  has  more  raw  horsepower  dueto 
its  four  pipelines  asopposed  to  two  on 
the  Radeon.  ATi  could  have  equipped 
the  Radeon  with  four  pipelines,  but 
decided  to  increase  its  feature  set. 


LiketheGeForce2,  the  Radeon  has 
an  integrated  T&L  engineto  offload 
geometry calculationsfrom  theCPU  and 
leave  it  free  for  other  duties.  H  owever, 
unlike  many  other  cards  currently 
available,  the  Radeon  also  supports 
hardware  environment  bump  mapping. 
This  creates  f  a  r  mo  re  I  if  el  i  ke  su  rf  aces 
without  the  need  for  massive  polygon 
counts,  but  likeT&L  we're  waiting  for 
games  to  take  full  advantage  of  it. 

As  well  as  the  most  comprehensive 
3D  feature  set,  the  Radeon  also 
sports  video  in  and  video  out  (VIVO) 
capabilities,  so  you  can  use  it  for  video 
editing  as  well  as  playing  games.  The 
ATi  is  good  value,  and  has  great  features 
and  64M  B  of  the  fastest  graphics 
memoryaround. 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £299  (£254.46  exVAT) 

CONTACT  ATi  01628  533  115 

www.ati.com 
PROS  The  most  feature-rich  graphics  card 
available 

CONS  NotasfastastheGeForce2  in  16bit 
colour 

OVERALL  A  superb  card  from  ATi,  every 
feature  you  could  want  and  64M  B  of  memory 


Personal 


Computer  World  •  October  2000 


mm 


GRAPHICS  CARDS 


GRAPHICS  CARDS  >  > 


Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2  GTS 


THE  3D  BLASTER  isoneofthe 
cheapest  32M  B  versions  of  nVidia's  new 
chipset  at  £215.02  inc  VAT.  This  means 
it  takes  advantage  of  the  0.18micron  die 
process,  rather  than  the  0.22  process  of 
theoriginal  GeForce.  As  with  theother 
cardsherethisallowstheGPU  to  run  at 


the  higher  clock  speed  of 
200M  Hz.  Curiously,  the 
Creative's  default  setting  was 
found  to  bel99M  Hz,  and 
unliketheother  graphics 
boards,  it  didn't  havean 
overclocking  facility.  The 
memory  nevertheless  can  be 
pushed  up  to  366MHz. 

Driver  installation  was  a 
slightly  lengthy  process  with 
theoption  of  installing 
Sonnetech's  Colorific 
together  with  3Deep  to  help 
you  adjust thecolourand 
display  more  accurately. 
BlasterControl  4.0  allows 
you  to  add  shortcuts  to  the 
BasterControl  interface,  run 
thecard  in  safe  mode,  and 
set  the  colours  and  refresh 
rate.  It  also  gives  info  on 
thedriversand  BIOS.  You 
can  also  diagnose  your 
card  and  adjust  the  OpenG  Land 
Direct3D  settings. 

As  far  as  performance  goes  the  3D 
Blaster  GeForce2  is  much  the  same  as 
the  other  cards  with  the  same  chipset 
and  quantity  of  SG  RAM .  It  scored  4,852 
in  the  3D  M  ark  test  at  a  resolution  of 


1,280x1,024  in  16bit  colour.  As  for 
frame  rates  at  this  setting  the  C reative 
managed  74.9  for  Quake  III  and  69  for 
Test  Drive6.  Moving  on  to  32bit  colour 
and  thestoryismuch  thesameasthe 
rest  of  the  32M  B  GeForce2  field  with  no 
resultsfor3DMark  at  1,600x1,200  in 
32bit  colour.  The  fact  that  the  Creative 
wasn't  the  only  GeForce2  card  to  fail  in 
Test  Drive 6  at  1,600x1,200  with  16bit 
colour,  suggests  that  it  may  be  driver 
related.  Wewould  recommend  installing 
the  latest  drivers  for  all  of  these  when 
they  become  available. 

W  hat  the  Creative  lacks  is  any  form 
of  extra  outputs  other  than  the  standard 
D-SUB  connector.  On  the  surface,  there 
are  sockets  for  an  S-Video  output  board, 
but  this  is  not  part  of  the  package. 


DETAILS 


★★★ 


PRICE  £215.02  (£183  exVAT) 

CONTACT  dabs.com  0800  138  5154 

www.europe.creative.com 

PROS  A  well-priced  GeForce2  GTS  graphics 

board 

CO  NS  N  o  outputs  and  no  option  to  overclock 
memorywith  supplied  driver 
OVERALL  A  cheaper  option  to  get  your  hands 
on  nVidia's  latest  graphics  technology 


ELSA  Gladiac  GeForce2  GTS  32M  B 


ELSA  MAY  NOT  BE  the  best  known 
graphics  card  manufacturer  in  the  U  K, 
but  in  Europe it'soneof  themost 
prevalent.  ELSA  used  to  be  best  known 
for  its  high-end  graphics  workstation 
cards  costing  well  over  £1,000.  These 
weretheforerunnersofthenow 


commonplaceT&L  enhanced 
graphics  cards,  where  much 
of  thegeometry calculation  is 
taken  awayfromtheCPU  to 
enhance  overall  performance. 

ELSA's  recent  less  exotic 
graphics  cards  have  the  latest 
chipset  from  nVidia,  the 
GeForce2  GTS.  This  very 
advanced  chipset  features  an 
integrated  T&Lengineand 
allows  multiple  textures  per 
pixel,  but  it  doesn't  support 
hardware  environment  bump 
mapping,  so  you  won't  get 
the  incredibly  realistic 
textures  that  the  ATi  Radeon 
can  achieve.  This  version  of 
the G ladiac  sports  32M  B  of 
RAM  although  a  64MB 
version  is  also  available  with  a 
price  premium  attached. 

Even  though  this  card  has 
only  half  the  memory  of  its 
bigger  brother,  it  does  have  a  feature 
that  its  sibling  lacks.  As  well  as  the 
standard  D-SUB  monitor  connector 
there  is  also  a  video  input/output 
connector.  This  small  din  plug  connects 
to  a  supplied  cable  which  offers  S-Video 
in  and  out  ports.  This  is  a  pretty  good 


addition  asthisisoneofthecheapest 
GeForce2  cards  on  test. 

The32M  B  Gladiac tookfourth  place 
in  the  3D  M  ark  test  at  1,280  x  1,024  in 
16bit  colour,  although  most  of  the 
GeForce2  cards  produced  similar  scores. 
In  all  the  tests  the  Gladiac  was  no  better 
or  worse  than  the  majority  of  similarly 
specced  cards. 

If  you  want  to  buy  a  32M  B  GeForce2 
card,  there's  not  too  much  between 
them  as  far  as  performance  goes.  What 
you  should  consider  is  any  extra  features 
and  how  much  they  cost.  The  Gladiac 
scores  well  on  both  these  counts,  it  has 
the  extra  video  in  and  out  feature  and 
sportsoneofthelowest  priceson  test. 

This  is  a  great  graphics  card  offering 
a  cutting-edge  chipset  and  added  video 
functionality  at  a  reasonable  price. 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £216.20  (£184  exVAT) 
CONTACTdabs.com  0800  138  5154 
www.elsa.co.uk 

PROS  GeForce2  chipset,  video  in/out, 
reasonable  price 
CONS  Faster  cards  available 
OVERALL  A  good  card  with  a  solid  price/ 
performance  ratio 


r|T|]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


GRAPHICS  CARDS  >  > 


ELSA  Gladiac  GeForce2  GTS  64MB 


thestandard  200M  Hz,  the 
Gladiac  is  one  of  four  boards 
in  this  test  that  sport  a 
whopping  64M  B  of  memory. 

At  a  resolution  of  1,280  x 
1,024  in  16bit  colour,  thecard 
scored  pretty  much  the  norm 
with  4,783  in  the3DM  ark 
test.  The  effectiveness  of  the 
Gladiac'sextra  memoryis 
shown  in  our  tests,  since  it 
wasoneofthefew  cardsthat 
was  able  to  record  a  result  in 
3DM  ark  at  1,600  xl, 200  in 
32bit  colour.  If  the  resolution 
orthecolourdepth  is 
umped  up  the  ELSA  rises 
towardsthetop  of thefield  in 
all  the  tests.  It  also  hits  top  in 
the  Test  Drive  test  at  both 
1,280x1,024  and  1,600  x 
1,200  in  32bit.  The  Gladiac 
64M  B  is,  however,  over¬ 
shadowed  by  the  Hercules  3D 
Prophet  II  in  the  3D  M  ark  tests.  The 
Q  uake  III  scores  paint  a  similar  picture. 
Ata  resolution  of  1,600x1,200  in  16bit 
colour,  theGladiac  manages  54.  lfps- 
second  to  the64M  B  Hercules  card,  one 
oftheEditor'sChoices. 

ELSA  hasn't  included  video  in/out 


ELSA  WASONE  OF  the  first  vendors  to 
release  a  graphics  card  based  on  the 
GeForce2  GTS  chipset  and  32M  B  of 
DDR  SG  RAM  .This  month,  the  company 
has  gone  one  step  further  with  the 
releaseof  theGladiac  GeForce2  GTS 
64M  B.  Based  on  a  GPU  core  running  at 


functionson  theGladiacGeForce2  GTS 
64M  B  -  features  that  are  included  on  the 
32M  B  version.  Bundled  software  includes 
a  DVD  player,  while overclockers  will  be 
ableto  tweak  the  memory  from  320  to 
380M  Hzand  theGPU  core  from  180  to 
240M  Hz.  Becareful  though,  asunlikethe 
64M  B  3D  Prophet  II  no  heatsinks  are 
present  on  the  memory  chips. 

In  termsof  raw  power,  theGladiac  is 
notthefastest  in  this  test,  buttheframe 
rates  it  achieves  are  more  than  enough 
for  the  current  crop  of  games.  Even 
though  the  Gladiac  comes  into  its  own 
when  higher  resolutions  are  important, 
it's  unlikely  that  the  majority  of  users 
will  benefit  from  the  extra  memory, 
apart  from  thetruegaming  junkie. 

At  the  time  of  going  to  press,  ELSA 
could  not  give  us  a  price.  Therefore,  we 
areunableto  givethecard  a  star  rating. 


DETAILS 

N/A 

PRICE  Notsupplied 

CONTACT  www.elsa.co.uk 

PROS  Excellent  results  at  higher  resolution 

and  colour-depth  settings 

CONS  Video  outputs  are  optional  extra 

OVERALL  A  card  that  performs  well  at  high 

settings  but  isn't  strong  on  features 


Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 


a  fan  over  the  GPU  to  keep 
things  cool  as  it  pumps  along. 

Of  all  the  cards  employing 
theGeForce2  chipset,  the 
GA-GF2000  is  not  thefastest, 
with  an  average  position 
around  seventh  place.  Its 
strongest  performance  was  in 
theTest  Drive 6  demo  at 
1,600x1,200  in  32bit  colour, 
where  it  achieved  a 
respectablefourth  place  with 
22fps,  which  isan  admirable 
score  for  such  a  demanding 
resolution  and  colour  depth. 
Strangely,  its  poorest 
performance  was  in  3DMark 
2000  at  1,600x1,200  with 
16bit  textures  and  colours 
where  it  came  tenth  (and  last 
among  the  GeForce2  cards). 

TheGA-GF2000  was 
unableto  run3DMarkat 
1,600x1,200  in  32bit,  as  were 
all  thecardsemployingtheGeForce2 
chipset  coupled  with  32M  B  ofSGRAM .  In 
fact,  of  theGeForce2  cards,  onlythe 
64M  B  versions  could  run  this  test 

Fortheoverclocking  enthusiast,  this 
card  has  sliders  in  the  software  drivers 
allowingthecoreto  beoverclocked 


MORE  ASSOCIATED  with  mother¬ 
board  manufacture,  Gigabyte  has  turned 
to  graphics  cards  with  theGeForce2- 
driven  GA-GF2000.  The  board  is  blue  in 
colour,  but  is  otherwise  unspectacular¬ 
looking.  As  with  most  GeForce2  cards  it 
has32M  B  of  onboard  DDR  SG  RAM  and 


from  its  recommended  200MHzto 
220M  Hz,  and  thememoryfrom 
333MHzto  370MHz.  Although 
overclocking  the  core  has  little  effect, 
bumping  up  the  memoryfrequency 
gives  a  few  extra  frames,  although  we 
wouldn't  recommend  it  as  the  memory 
runsfairly  hot  on  all  GeForce2  cardsat 
the  recommended  frequencies,  and 
overclocking  mayreducethelifeof 
thecard. 

Forgaming,  this  card  iseasilyas 
good  asanyof  theothers available. The 
bundled  drivers  are  based  on  nVidia's 
reference  drivers  5.30,  and  so  are  right 
up  to  dateand  utiliseall  thecard's 
features.  However,  with  no  added  extras 
on  thecard  to  recommend  it,  the 
Gigabyte G A-G F2000  doesn't  represent 
the  best  value  in  this  test. 


DETAILS 

★★★ 

PRICE  £239  (£203.40  exVAT) 

CONTACT  GasteinerTechnologies 
020  8345  6000  www.gasteiner.com 
PROS  It's  fast,  but  notthefastest 
CO  NS  N  ot  the  best  of  the  no-frills  GeForce2s 
OVERALL  A  perfectly  good  GeForce2  card, 
although  there  are  some  alternatives  that  get 
mo  re  from  the  chipset 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


D  Prophet  II 32MB 


of  the  Hercules 
3D  Prophet  II  mayseem  overshadowed  by 
its  64M  B  big  brother,  but  its  performance 
in  thetests showed  that  it  isstill  a  good 
contender  -  and  that's  without  the 
overclocking  the  64M  B  uses  to  burn  its 
way  to  thetop  of  most  of  thetables. 


Looking  like  a  sleeker 
version  of  the64M  B  card, 
the32MB  board  is  blue, 
quitelargeand  hasblue 
heatsinks  over  the  DDR 
SGRAM  chips,  four  on  the 
upper  surfaceand  fouron 
the  lower.  The  heatsink  over 
theGPU  isof asimilarblue 
to  the  others,  giving  this  card 
excellent  overall  looks. 

The  Prophet's  memory 
runs  at  333MHz,  but  can 
theoretically  be  clocked  up  to 
420M  Hz.  The  heatsinks  will 
be  of  use  if  you  choose  to 
overclock  it,  helping  to 
dissipate  the  heat  generated 
by  the  memory  chips  over  a 
I  a  rger  su  rf  ace  a  rea .  T  h  e  co  re 
runs  at  200MHz  as 
recommended  bynVidia,  but 
can  be  clocked  up  to  250M  Hz 
forthosewho  dare.  Although 
the  sliders  in  the  software  go  up  to  these 
higher  frequencies,  this  does  not  mean 
the  card  will  run  at  these  speeds,  it's 
more  likely  that  it  will  just  lock  up. 

The32M  B  Prophet  II  performed  well 
at  all  resolutions  in  16bit.  Not  the 
highest  ofthe32M  B  cards  in  any  test, 


but  neither  is  it  the  worst  performer.  Its 
best  performance  was  at  1,600  x  1,200 
in  16bit  colour  in  Quakelll  and  theTest 
Drivetimedemo,  where  it  came  sixth  and 
fourth  respectively;  and  since  most  of  the 
cards  that  beat  it  were  64M  B  versions, 
this  is  fair  performance. 

The  card  comes  with  an  S-Video 
socket  complete  with  a  composite 
converter  if  you  don't  have  S-Video  on 
your  TV.  Power  DVD  software  is 
included  so  you  can  play  DVD  movies 
through  thecard  to  your  television. 

With  its  performance  as  good  as 
most  other  GeForce2  cards,  and  a  DVD 
player  and  TV-out  as  standard,  the 
Prophet  II  32M  B  may  not  bethe 
ultimate  card  its  64M  B  counterpart  is, 
but  it  does  offer  good  value. 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £246.74  (£209.99  exVAT) 

CONTACT  jungle.com 0800 0355 355 

www.hercules.com 

PROS  With  heatsinks  to  keep  the  memory 
cool,  this  card  is  not  onlyfunctional,  but  it 
looks  great  too 

CONS  Not  one  of  the  fastest  card  on  test 
OVERALL  Good  performance  and  valuefrom 
a  card  with  S-Video  out  and  a  DVD  player 


H  ercules  3D  Prophet  II 64M  B 


is  it  so  hot?  Because  as 
standard,  the  drivers 
supplied  by  Hercules 
overclock  both  the  memory 
and  theGPU  coreof  the 
64M  B  Prophet  II.  So  instead 
of  nVidia's  recommended 
200M  Hzcoreand  333M  Hz 
memory,  this  card  runs  a 
220M  Hzcoreand  365M  Hz 
memory-  and  it  flies. 

The  overclocking  may 
haveimplicationsforthe 
longevityof  thecard. 
However,  the  presence  of  the 
heatsinks  over  the  memory 
ensure  as  much  heat  is 
dissipated  as  is  physically 
possible.  Besides,  in  the 
extensive  testing  we  put  the 
card  through  we  found  it 
remained  stabledespitethe 
high  temperature,  only 
crashing  once(and  that 
wasn't  even  during  a  test).  Hercules  has 
gambled  on  overclocking,  and  it  appears 
to  have  paid  off;  and  what's  more,  if  you 
don't  want  it  running  hot,  all  you  need 
to  do  is  usetheutilityto  return  the 
frequencies  to  the  recommended  levels. 
So  how  fast  is  it  in  its  standard 


HERCULES'  64MB  3D  Prophet  II  is 
one  hot  card  -  literally.  If  you  were  a  very 
small  person,  with  some  very  small 
burgers,  you  could  have  a  fair  go  at 
cookingthem  on  the  heatsinks  that 
cover  the  64M  B  of  D  D  R  SD  RAM ,  such  is 
the  heat  generated  by  this  monster.  Why 


configuration?  In  16bit  colour  and 
textures  in  3D  M  ark  2000,  at  1,280  x 
1,024  and  1,600  x  1,200,  it  topped  the 
tables  with  scores  of  5,145  and  4,050 
respectively.  At  32bit  colour,  at  the  same 
resolutions,  the  ATi  Radeon  was  the 
only  card  to  beat  it.  In  the  Quake  III  tests 
it  achieved  a  blistering  81.8fps  at  1,280 
xl,024  at  16bit,  zipping  through  the 
timedemo  at  an  incredible  rate. 

With  Power  DVD  software  and  DVI 
and  S-Video  out  sockets  as  standard,  this 
isthefastestGeForce2  card  we've  seen. 
Hot  it  maybe,  but  if  you're  lookingfor  a 
card  to  make  your  graphics  burn  along  as 
fast  as  possible,  this  is  an  absolute  must. 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £311.38  (£265  exVAT) 

CONTACT  dabs.com  0800  138  5154 

www.dabs.com 

PROS  DVI  socket;  incrediblespeedfroma 
GeForce2 -based  card 

CONS  This  is  achieved  by  overclocking  the 
memoryand  core  which  mayreducethelifeof 
thecard 

OVERALL  Despitetheoverclocking  wefound 
thecard  to  bestable.  If  it's  the  fastest  card  you 
want,  then  this  is  the  one.  If  it's  features  you 
need,  the  Radeon  has  more 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


GRAPHICS  CARDS 


GRAPHICS  CARDS  >  > 


designed  to  produce  more 
realistic  3D  environments. 
TheG400  wasalso  oneof  the 
first  consumer-based  cards  to 
incorporatedual  head 
technology,  allowing  you  to 
connect  to  two  monitors. 
Shortly  after  its  release, 
Matrox  improved  upon  the 
original  G400  byaddinga 
faster  processor  and 
RAM  DAC,  the  latter  running 
at  360MHz  instead  of 
300M  H  z.  Aptly  named  the 
G400  M  ax,  the  extra  power  of 
the  new  card  meant  that  a  fan 
had  to  be  used  to  cool  the 
heatsink.  There's  been  a  lot  of 
activity  on  the  graphics  cards 
front  since  its  original  release 
so  how  does  the  Maxfare 
against  the  current  crop  of 
hot  chipsets? 

In  terms  of  performance, 
the  M  ax  is  starting  to  show  its  age.  At  a 
resolution  of  1,280  x  1,024  with  16bit 
colour,  it  onlyscored  2,212  in  the 
3D  Mark  tests,  which  places  it  second 
from  the  bottom  in  the  group.  In  the 
Q uake  III  tests,  it  onlymanaged  17.6fps 
at  1,280x1,024  with  16bit  colour, 


WE  FIRST  REVIEWED  the  M  atrox 
M  illennium  G400  well  over  a  year  ago 
and  we  knew  then  that  M  atrox  had 
created  something  special.  TheG400 
was  thefirst  graphics  chipset  to 
incorporate  hardware  environment 
bump  mapping,  a  DirectX  feature 


placing  it  last.  TheG400  M  axdid 
surprise  us  by  achieving  800  3D  M  arks  at 
1,600x1,200  in  32bit,  but  gameplayat 
these  settings  would  beimpossible. 

TheG400  M  axis  lagging  behind  the 
rest  of  thefield  in  this  month's  test.  That 
said,  it  isn't  just  about  raw  power. 
Superb  image  quality  and  a  second 
D-SU  B  allow  the  M  axto  retain  some 
of  its  original  appeal.  There's  also  a 
supplied  composite  and  S-Video  out  all- 
in-one  cable  that  plugs  into  thespare 
D-SUB  port.  However,  if  it's  cutting 
edge  3D  performance  you're  after  then 
look  elsewhere  or  wait  for  the  upcoming 
G450.  However,  if  playing  the  latest 
games isn'tyourtop  priority,  and  you're 
just  after  a  2D  no-nonsense  card  then 
theG400  M  ax  still  has  a  lot  going  for  it. 


DETAILS 

★★ 

PRICE  £151.57  (£129  exVAT) 

CONTACT  dabs.com  0800  138 5154 

www.dabs.com 

PROS  An  excellent  reputation  for  2D;  second 
displayoutput 

CONS  Poor  3D  performance;  not  for  serious 
gamers 

OVERALL  A  good  feature  set  and  good  2D, 
but  is  out  of  its  league  in  terms  of  3D 


MSI  MS-StarForce 815 


months  ago.  Like  many 
Taiwanese  motherboard 
manufacturers,  M  SI  has  now 
expanded  into  the  graphics 
card  market,  although  this 
area  is  getting  more  cut¬ 
throat  all  thetime.  Not  long 
ago  manufacturers  could 
producegraphics  boards 
based  on  chipsets  from 
nVidia,  3dfxand  S3,  but  now 
onlynVidia  produces  chips 
for  other  companies.  So,  the 
M  SI,  along  with  most  cards  in 
this  test  is  based  on  nVidia's 
GeForce2  GTS  chipset. 

Backing  up  the  nVidia 
GeForce2  chip  is  32M  B  of 
memory,  which  ismorethan 
enough  to  handlethesizeof 
textures  in  current  games.  In 
fact,  if  games  developers  ever 
start  using  texture 
compression  properly,  we 
mayseetheend  of  theongoing  spiral  of 
increasing  video  memory.  The  M  SI 
performed  no  better  or  worse  than  any 
other  32M  B  GeForce2  card  in  the 
3DMarktests,  but  in  0  uake  III  and  Test 
Drive  6  it  performed  slightly  better, 
placing  in  the  upper  half  in  most  tests. 


company  that's  best 
known  for  its  motherboard  production. 
In  fact  M  SI  produced  thefirst  (and  only 
for  a  while)  AM  D  Athlon  motherboard 
and  wasalso  showcasing  thefirst  1GHz 
AM  D  Athlon  Thunderbird  system  on  its 
stand  atComputexTaipei  acoupleof 


Inside  the  boxyou'll  find  installation 
instructions,  a  driver  CD  and  a  copy  of 
WinDVD  in  case  you  want  to  watch 
movies  on  your  PC,  assuming  you  have  a 
DVD-ROM  drive  of  course. 

There's  nothing  special  about  this 
card,  it  doesn't  have  the  video  in/out 
feature  of  the  32M  B  ELSA  Gladiac,  and  it 
doesn't  even  have  the  expansion 
connector  to  fit  it  as  an  upgrade.  You're 
getting  a  no-frills  GeForce2  card  that 
performs  well  enough  in  3D  applica¬ 
tions.  Of  course,  you're  not  getting 
hardware  environment  bump  mapping  in 
the  feature  set,  but  you  are  getting  those 
four  pipelines  that  help  it  outperform  the 
Radeon  in  16bit.  If  you're  lookingfora 
good  value  32M  B  GeForce2  graphics 
adaptor,  the  ELSA  offers  a  stronger 
feature  set  at  a  great  price. 


DETAILS 

★★★ 

PRICE  £245  (£208.51  exVAT) 

CONTACT  M  icroteq  Innovations 
01733  896  667  www.msi.com.tw 
PROS  GeForce2  chipset;  solid  performance 
CONS  Light  on  features;  better  valueoptions 
available 

OVERALL  A  basic  GeForce2  card  that's 
eclipsed  a  little  by  the  ELSA 


ll!  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


I 


Smoothing  out  the  bumps 


Smoother  pantie  line:  Lara  without  FSAA  enabled  on  the  left  FSAA  has  been  turned  on  for  the 
shot  on  the  right  -  see  the  smoother  lines  where  pixels  have  been  blurred 


Anti-aliasing  isused  to 
smooth  out  the 
pixellation  that  appearsin 
graphics  generation,  most 
notably  when  a  diagonal 
straight  edgeisdrawn.  What  it 
doesinsimpletermsisto 
removethestep  effect  that  is 
especially  noticeableon 
straight  diagonal  lines  and 
curves,  byblurringtheon- 
screen  pixels,  thus  removing 
thepixel  corners  and 
smoothing  theimage.  The 
effect  of  this  can  bequite 
spectacular  in  removing  the 
'step' effect,  especially  in  lower 
resolutions  wherethepixelsare 
larger  and,  bydefinition,  the 
problem  ismorepronounced. 

Until  recently, anti-aliasing 
has  been  confined  to  small 
areas  of  thescene,  thus 
reducingtheprocessing 
requirement  acrossthewhole 
scene.  Recently,  though,  cards 
have  started  to  support  full 
seen  e  an  ti  -al  i  asi  n  g  (FSAA) 
which  meansthewholeimage 
has  anti-aliasing  applied  to  it, 
thus  removing  pixel  edges 
acrossthewholescreen.This 
certainly  looks  good  -  and  you 
havethetimeto  seetheeffect 
on  somecardsbecausethe 
frameratedropsso  low  that 
it's  li  ke watch  i  n g  a  si  i d e sh o w. 

3dfx  has  recently  drawn  a  lot 
of  attention  to  FSAA  with  the 
launch  of  itsVoodoo5  5500, 
which  boasts  two  and  four- 
samplerealtimeFSAA.And 
unfortunately  it  has  been 
slammed  in  thepressfor 
theframeratehitthat 
accom  pan  i  es  u  se  of  th  efeatu  re. 

I  n  the  i  nterest  of  fai  rness  (and 


curiosity)  wethereforedecided 
to  test  a  few  cards  to  see  h ow  al  I 
of  them  coped  with  FSAA.  We 
tested  theAsusV7700  Pure,  the 
ELSA  Gladiac  64MB,  the 
Voodoo5  5500  and  thenew 
ATi  Radeon.  All  weretested 
first  without  FSAA  enabled, 
then  with  it  enabled  for  direct 
comparison.  FortheGeForce2- 
based  cardsthis involved  using 
nVidia's  most  up-to-date 
reference  drivers  (version  5.32), 
aspreviousversionsdid  not 
havetheFSAA  element 
enabled,  whilewith  the 
Voodoo5  wetested  first  at  two- 
sample  FSAA  and  then  at  four. 
T  h  e  resu  I  ts  are  ext  remel  y 
interesting. 

With  16bit  colour  and 
textures  enabled  in  Quakelll 
at  1,280  x  1,024  frame  rates 
ranged  from  76.2fpsfrom  the 
AsusV7700to51.6fpsfrom 
theATi  Radeon. TheVoodoo5 
achieved  a  respectable63.4fps, 
whilethe64M  B  ELSA  Gladiac 
achieved  75fps.  All  are 
excel  I  ent  frame  rates  for  the 


resolution.  When  FSAA  is 
turned  on  all  thecards 
suffered  a  substantial  frame 
ratehit.  What  is  most 
interesting  is  how  much  their 
original  framecountis 
knocked  down  whiletheFSAA 
featureisenabled.TheAsus 
suffered  a  massive 60  per  cent 
drop  in  fps,  theG ladiac a  52 
per  cent  drop,  whilethe 
Radeon  suffered  a  65  per  cent 
drop.  I  nterestingly,  at  two- 
sampleFSAA  theVoodoo5  did 
best  of  all,  losing  only  47  per 
cent  of  its  non-FSAA  fps,  while 
at  f  o  u  r-sam  p  I  e  F  SA  A  i  t  was 
comparableto  theRadeon, 
losing  65  per  cent  of  its  non- 
FSAA  fps.  So  despitethefact 
that  theVoodoo5  had  the 
lowest  frames  per  second  after 
application  of  FSAA  (achieving 
onlyl7.8fps),itwasnot 
affected  as  badly  as  any  of  the 
other  cards.  At  1,280  x  1,024  i n 
32bittheresultsweresimilar. 

T he Asus suffered  a  60  per  cent 
reduction  to  its  frames  per 
second,  theG  ladiac  54  per 


cent,  the  Radeon  67  percent, 
andattwo-sampleFSAA,the 
Voodoo5  lost  56  per  cent, 
whereat  four-sampleFSAA,  it 
would  not  run  at  all.  All  the 
frames  per  second  at  this 
resolution  and  colour  depth 
were  between  15.9  and  19.6fps. 

T  he  resu  Its  are  i  nteresti  ng 
becausethey  actuallygo  some 
way  towards  vindicating  the 
Voodoo5,  which  is  in  reality 
not  affected  byFSAA  as  greatly 
as  other  cards  in  general  terms. 
As  for  FSAA  generally,  it 
appears  it  isjusttoo  much  for 
today's  hardwareto  process 
efficiently;  and  considering  its 
effect  on  performance,  FSAA 
should  probablymore 
accurately  stand  for  'frame-rate 
suffers  after  acti  vati  on '.  T  hat 
said,  if  you  haveaback 
catalogueof  gamesthat  don't 
support  today's  high 
resolutions,  FSAA  could  bea 
real  bonus.  But  ultimately, you 
haveto  ask  yourself  if  you  really 
want  to  pi  ay  old  games  anyway. 

SCOTT  MONTGOMERY 


Quake  III  with  FSAA  enabled  1,280  x  1,024  at  16bit  (fps)  I  Quake  III  with  FSAA  enabled  1,280  x  1,024  at  32bit  (fps) 


ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500  2x 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
ATi  Radeon 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500  4x 


17.8 


14.8 


ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500  2x 
ATi  Radeon 


1 

15.9 

\\ 

Asus  V7700  Pure 

Rur 

H 

1 1  1  ■  n  i  m  \ 

3dfx  VoodooS  5500  4x 

UIU  IWI 

j 

0  10  20  30  40  50  60  70  80  90  100 


10  20  30  40  50  60  70 


BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  jpJV 


GRAPHICS  CARDS 


GRAPHICS  CARDS  >  > 


How  we  did  the  tests 


The  needs  of  every  user 
are  different  and  this 
makes  it  very  hard  to 
put  together  a  comprehensive 
benchmark  test.  Some  people 
may  place  more  emphasis  on 
2D  performance  -  with  the 
ability  to  play  a  few  3D  games 
a  bonus.  Others  are  willing  to 
sacrifice  2D  performance  to 
get  the  best  gaming  platform 
possible,  at  whatever  price. 
Even  if  this  is  true,  then  they 
may  have  certain  games  in 
mind,  which  further  compli¬ 
cates  matters.  With  all  this  in 
mind,  we  put  together  the 
following  combination  of 
tests:  3DMark2000,  Quake  III 
demol  and  Test  Drive  6  Time 
Demo,  running  them  on  one 
of  our  PC  refer¬ 
ence  machines,  a 
733MHz  Intel 
Pentium  III 
plugged  into  an 
AGP  4x equipped 
motherboard  with 
128MB  of 
RDRAM,  all  under 
Windows  98  SE. 

We  decided  not  to 
run  2D  tests  since 
there  is  very  little 
difference  between 
these  cards  in  a 
2D  environment. 


3D  Mark  2000 

This  is  an  instruction-set 
optimised  version  of 
3DM  ark99  from  Futuremark, 
which  tests  the  3D  capabilities 
of  PCs.  It  uses  a  Real  World 
DirectX  7  3D  game  engine  to 
produceoneresultinthe 
form  of  3D  Marks.  For 
standalone  reviews  and 
group  tests,  we  usually 
perform  all  tests  at  1,280  x 
1,024  resolution  in  16bit 
colour  depth  with  the  test 
suites  set  to  loop  three 
times.  In  this  test,  to  push 
the  cards  that  little  bit 
harder,  we  also  ran  the 
testsat  1,280x1,024  in  32bit 
colour,  1,600  xl, 200  in  16bit 
colour  and  1,600x1,200  in 
32bit,  if  those  modes  were 


supported  bythe 
card.  The  higher  the 
score,  the  better 
the  result. 


Quake  III 

This  game  gives  a 
good  overview  of 
OpenGL  performance.  Testing 
cards  with  Quake  III  consists  of 
running  a  recorded  game  on 
the  test  system  and  getting  a 
final  frames  per  second  (fps) 
score  at  the  end.  The  higher  the 
sco re  the  better,  with  an  fps  of 
30  or  more  providing  visibly 
smooth  playback. 

Acoupleofdemosare 
alreadybuilt  into  the Q uake  III 
test  -  part  of  the  full  version 
game  -  and  we  opted  for 
demo  1  which  puts  a  greater 
demand  onthegraphics 
subsystem  due  to  it  being 


A  bove:  Q  uake  III  highlights  O  penG  L  performance 
L  eft:  W  e  pushed  the  cards  hard  in  the  3D  M  ark  tests 
B  elow:  A  racing  game  put  the  cards  under  pressure 
during  the  TestD  rive  6  demo 


staged  in  an  open  area  with  no 
walls.  To  run  the  test  you  need 
to  bring  up  theconsoleand 
enter  thefollowing  commands: 
timedemo  1 

then  press  return,  followed  by 
demo  demoOOl 

After  thedemo  hasfinished, 
bringing  up  theconsoleagain 
will  display  theoverall  fps  score. 
We  ran  the  test  four  times  for 
each  card  at  1,280  x  1,024  and 
1,600  xl, 200  resolutions  in 
both  16bit  and  32bit  colour, 
with  the  game  settings  at 
their  maximum. 


Test  Drive  6 

It  is  hard  work  putting  graphics 
cards  through  their  paces, 
involving  a  lot  of  repetitive 
testing  and  quantitative  data 
collection.  Instead  of  only 
using  the  standard  first-person 
shooter  game,  we  further 
enhanced  thequalityof  our 
results  by  including 
Infrogames' Test  Drive 6  Time 
Demo,  giving  us  another  fps 
score.  Although  first-person 
perspective  games  tend  to  be 
someof  the  most  popularon 
the  PC,  we  thought  adding  a 
driving  game  into  the  mix 
would  cover  the  interests  of 
more  end  users.  Furthermore, 
this  racing  game  comes  with 
transform  and  lighting 
support,  putting  manyof the 
graphics  cards  under  more 
pressure.  As  with  the  other 
tests,  we  ran  the  demo  four 
times  per  card  at  1,280  x  1,024 
and  1,600  xl, 200  resolutions 
in  both  16bit  and  32bit  colour. 


|T#1  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


GRAPHICS  CARDS  >  > 


1,280  x  1,024  at  16bit 


Hill 


1,280  x  1,024  at  32bit 


Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
MSI  Starforce 815 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
ATi  Radeon 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
Matrox  G400  Max 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 


ATi  Radeon 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
AO  pen  PA 2 56  Deluxe 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
MSI  Starforce 815 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
Matrox  G400  Max 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 


1,000  2,000  3,000  4,000  5,000  6,000 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


1,000  2,000  3,000  4,000 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


Quake  III  Demo 

^uak^l^em^28^c  1,024  at  16bit  (fps)  ■  Q uake  III  Demo  1,280  x  1,024  at  32bit  (fps) 


Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
MSI  Starforce  815 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
ATi  Radeon 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro  17.8 
Matrox  G 400  Max  17-6 


78.6 


77.5 


76.6 


76.4 


76.4 


76.2 


75.5 


75 


74.9 


ATi  Radeon 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
AO  pen  PA 2 56  Deluxe 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
MSI  Starforce 815 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
Matrox  G400  Max 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 


0  25  50  75  100 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 

0  10  20  30  40  50  60 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 

Test  Drive  6  Time  Demo 

| Test  Drive  6  1,280  x  1,024  at  16bit  (fps) 

Test  Drive  6  1,280  x  1,024  at  32bit  (fp< 

5) 

Asus  V7700  Pure 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
MSI  Starforce  815 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe 
ATi  Radeon 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 
Matrox  G400  Max 


ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
ATi  Radeon 
AO  pen  PA 2 56  Deluxe 
MSI  Starforce 815 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 
Matrox  G400  Max 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 


40  60 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


20  30  40 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


1,600  x  1,200  at  16bit 


Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
MSI  Starforce 815 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
ATi  Radeon 
Matrox  G400  Max 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 


2,000  3,000 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


4,000  5,000 


1,600  x  1,200  at  32bit 


ATi  Radeon 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
Matrox  G400  Max 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe 
MSI  Starforce  815 


2,190 


800 
627 

DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
)  1,000 


BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


Quake  III  Demo  1, 

x  1,200  at  16bit  (fps) 

Quake  III  Demo  1, 

x  1,200  at  32bit  (fps) 

Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
MSI  Starforce 815 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
ATi  Radeon 
Matrox  G400  Max 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 


ATi  Radeon 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
MSI  Starforce  815 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
Matrox  G400  Max 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 


20  30  40  50 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


Test  Drive  6  1,600  x  1,200  at  16bit  (fps) 


Test  Drive  6  1,600  x  1,200  at  32bit  (fps) 


Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
MSI  Starforce 815 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
ATi  Radeon 
Asus  V7700  Pure 


3dfx  VoodooS  5500 

18 

Matrox  G400  Max 

DID 

NOT  1 

RUN 

ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 

DID 

NOT  1 

RUN 

Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 

DID 

NOT  1 

RUN 

Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 

DID 

NOT  1 

RUN 

Asus  V7700  Deluxe 

DID 

NOT  1 

RUN 

AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe 

DID 

NOT  1 

RUN 

i 

3  10  20 

30  40  50 

BIGGER  IS  BETTER 


ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  64MB 
ATi  Radeon 
AO  pen  PA256  Deluxe 
Gigabyte  GA-GF2000 
Asus  V7700  Deluxe 
Creative  3D  Blaster  GeForce2 
ATi  All-in-Wonder  128  Pro 
3dfx  VoodooS  5500 
Matrox  G400  Max 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  64MB 
Hercules  3D  Prophet  2  32MB 
ELSA  Gladiac  GTS  32MB 
Asus  V7700  Pure 
MSI  Starforce  815 


17 


13 


DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 
DID  NOT  RUN 

3  10  20 


tp 


30 

J  BETTER 


» 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


GRAPHICS  CARDS 


GRAPHICS  CARDS  >  > 


_ HMuiHTg _ 

Table  of  features 

% 

yi 

Manufacturer 

3dfx 

AOpen 

Asus 

Asus 

ATI 

ATi 

Product 

VoodooS 

5500  AGP 

PA256  Deluxe 

V7700  Deluxe 

V7700  Pure 

All-in-wonder 

128  Pro 

Radeon 

Price  inc  VAT  (ex  VAT) 

£210.32  (£179) 

£249  (£212) 

£285.52  (£243) 

£269.07  (£229) 

£169.20  (£144) 

£299  (£254) 

Manufacturer  URL 

www.aopen.nl 

www.asus.com 

www.ati.com 

Supplier  name 

dabs.com 

Majestic  Technologies 

Ultimate  Hardware 

dabs.com 

dabs.com 

dabs.com 

Essentials 

Chipset 

Dual  VSA-100 

nVidia  GeForce2  GTS 

nVidia  GeForce2  GTS 

nVidia  GeForce2  GTS 

ATi  Rage  128  Pro 

ATi  Radeon 

GPU  core  clock  speed  (MHz) 

166 

200 

200 

200 

Not  supplied 

183 

RAMDAC  frequency  (MHz) 

350 

350 

350 

350 

300 

350 

Overclocking  facility 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

X 

Interface 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

Memory/ type 

64MB/ SDRAM 

32MB/DDRSGRAM 

32MB/DDRSGRAM 

32MB/DDRSGRAM 

32MB/ SDRAM 

64MB/ D DR  SDRAM 

Memoryfrequency(MHz) 

166 

333  (166x2) 

333  (166x2) 

333  (166x2) 

Not  supplied 

366  (183x2) 

Hardware  mpeg2  assist 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Software  DVD  player 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Composite  output 

X 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

S-Video  output 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

Other/ software 

WinDVD  2000 

S-Video  to  RCA 

video  cable,  Drakan, 
Rollcage 

3D  glasses,  S-Video  in, 
games,  video-editing 
software, 

SmartDoctor 

Drakan,  Rollcage, 

Asus  SmartDoctor 

TV  Tuner,  S-Video  in/ 

out,  stereo  audio  in/ 
out,  ATi  multimedia 

centre,  Ulead  Video  4 

ATi  multimedia 

centre,  cables, 

S-video  in 

Max  2D  refresh  rates  (Hz)  at  16/32BIT  colour 

DEPTH 

1,024x768 

120/120 

200/200 

240/200 

240/200 

200/200 

200/200 

1,152x864 

120/120 

200/170 

200/170 

200/170 

160/160 

150/150 

1,280x1,024 

100/100 

170/150 

170/170 

170/170 

130/130 

130/130 

1,600x1,200 

100/100 

120/100 

120/100 

120/100 

90/90 

90/90 

3D  SUPPORT 

Alpha  blending 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Anisotropic  filtering 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Embossed  bump  mapping 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Hardware  environment  bump  mapping 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

✓ 

Anti-aliasing 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Full  scene  anti-aliasing 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Bilinear-filtering 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Trilinear-filtering 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Gouraud  shading 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Bilinear  mip  mapping 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Fogging 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Perspective  correction 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Transparency  (colour  &  alpha) 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Transform  and  Lighting 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Z  buffering  bit  depth 

24bit 

32bit 

32bit 

32bit 

32bit 

32bit 

Windows  95/98 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Windows  NT4 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Windows  2000 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Direct3D 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

OpenGL 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Glide 

✓ 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Creative 

ELSA 

ELSA 

Gigabyte 

Hercules 

(Guillemot) 

Hercules 

(Guillemot) 

Matrox 

MSI 

3D  Blaster 

GeForce2  GTS 

Gladiac 

GeForceZ 

GTS  32MB 

Gladiac 

GeForce2 

GTS  64MB 

GA-GF2000 

32MB 

3D  Prophet  II 

GTS  32MB 

3D  Prophet  II 

GTS  64MB 

Millennium 

G400  Max 

MS-Starforce 

815 

£215.02  (£183) 

£216.20  (£184) 

Not  supplied 

£239  (£203.40) 

£246.74  (£209.99) 

£311.38  (£265) 

£151.57  (£129) 

£245.00  (£208.51) 

www.europe.creative.com 

www.elsa.co.uk 

www.elsa.co.uk 

www.gasteiner.com 

www.hercules.com 

www.hercules.com 

www.matrox.com/mga 

www.msi.com.tw 

_ 

dabs.com 

dabs.com 

Not  supplied 

020  8345  6000 

jungle.com 

dabs.com 

dabs.com 

Microteq  Innovations 

nVidia  GeForce2  GTS 

nVidia  GeForce2  GTS 

nVidia  GeForce2  GTS 

nVIDIA  GeForce2  GTS 

nVidia  GeForce2  GTS 

nVidia  GeForce2  GTS 

Matrox  G400 

nVidia  GeForce2  GTS 

199 

200 

200 

200 

200 

220  (overclocked) 

Not  supplied 

200 

350 

350 

350 

350 

350 

350 

360 

350 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

2x/4x  AGP 

32MB/DDRSGRAM 

32MB/DDRSGRAM 

64MB/ DDR  SGRAM 

32MB/DDR  SGRAM 

32MB/DDR  SGRAM 

64MB/ DDR  SGRAM 

32MB  SGRAM 

32MB/DDR  SGRAM 

333  (166x2) 

333  (166x2) 

333  (166x2) 

333  (166x2) 

333  (166x2) 

365  (183x2  overclocked) 

Not  supplied 

333  (166x2) 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

X 

X 

X 

X 

✓  (with  supplied  cable) 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓  (with  supplied  cable) 

X 

Rage  Rally, 
Sonnetech  Colorific, 

3 Deep,  LAVA!  Player 

ELSA  WIN  man  Suite 

ELSA  WIN  man  Suite 

Not  supplied 

TV-out,  Composite 
converter,  Cyberlink 

PowerDVD 

DVI-out, 

Cyberlink  PowerDVD 

Dual  D -SUB, 
Micrografix  Picture 
Publisher,  Simply3D, 

PointCast 

WinDVD  2000 

200/200 

200/200 

200/200 

200/200 

240/200 

240/200 

160/160 

200/200 

170/170 

170/170 

170/170 

200/170 

200/170 

200/170 

140/140 

150/150 

170/150 

170/150 

170/150 

170/150 

170/170 

170/170 

120/120 

120/120 

_ 

120/100 

120/100 

120/100 

150/120 

120/100 

120/100 

100/100 

85/85 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

_ 

32bit 

32bit 

32bit 

32bit 

32bit 

32bit 

32bit 

32bit 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000  •  \ 


n 


GRAPHICS  CARDS 


Editor's  Choice 


Our  last  look  into  the  rapidly 
changing  world  of  graphics 
cards  was  a  mere  10  months 
ago  (PCI/I/  December  1999).  Less  than  a 
year  has  passed,  yet  you  would  hardly 
even  recognise  that  we  were  looking  at 
the  same  component,  such  is  the 
performance  of  today's  cards.  The 
Editor's  Choice  last  December  was 
M  atrox's  G400  M  ax,  which  appears  in 
this  group  test  as  it  is  still  the  best  2D 
card  on  the  market  -  and  because  it  acts 
as  a  marker  to  highlight  how  much  better 
current  cards  perform. 

Since  the  last  test  3D  performance 
has  literally  skyrocketed  through  two 
generations  of  GPUs  (the  GeForce  and 
nowtheGeForce2),  allowing  3D  games 
to  run  at  incredible  resolutions,  yet  still 
look  spectacular.  In  the  December  tests, 
the  M  atroxM  illennium  G400  M  axcard 
was  topping  someof  thetables  with 
scores  of  51.1fps  in  Quake  III  at  1,024  x 
768  in  32bit.  Backthen  thiswasquitea 
score forthis  resolution,  and  forthose 
still  running  mid-range  machines,  it  is 
still  a  more  than  acceptableframecount. 

Today,  similar  frame  rates  can  be 
achieved  at  1,280x1,024  in  32bit,  and 
even  at  1,600x1,200  in  16bit  for  most 
cards,  compared  to  30fps  by  the  best 
cards  in  the  last  test.  The  card 
manufacturers  have  made  a  lot  of 
progress  since  December. 

Graphics  performance  of  cards  has 
reached  such  a  level  now  that  not  only  is 
the  frame  count  relevant,  but  also  how 
refined  the  image  is.  However,  as  the 
section  on  full-scene  anti-aliasing 
highlights,  some  visual  refinement  can 


T  he  great  features  of  A  T  i's  R  adeon  make  it 
ideal  for  home-video  enthusiasts 


comeat  too  great  a  cost.  Still,  ATi  has 
managed  to  get  hardware  environment 
bump  mapping  onto  its  Radeon  chip 
(the  first  card  to  do  so  since  the  M  atrox 
G400)  and  it  looks  absolutely 
spectacular.  Crowded  round  a  monitor 
in  the  lab  when  wefirst  got  this  card  in, 
we  ran  somedemosof  bump  mapping, 
and  what  we  saw  was  breathtaking. 

Unfortunately,  nVidia  has  still  opted 
not  to  includeenvironment  bump 
mapping  on  the  second-generation 
GeForce2  GPU,  although  this  is  probably 
a  spaceconstraintdueto  thefour 
pipelines.  With  graphics  cards  though, 
one  still  has  to  respect  raw  polygon- 
shifting  power.  Theabilityto  drive  the 
graphics  to  such  a  level  that  ultra¬ 
smooth  jerk-free  gaming  occurs  no 
matter  what  is  on  the  screen,  certainly 
demands  admiration  and  that  is  where 
theGeForce2  cards  are  excellent. 

The  winners 

Thetop  runners  were  grouped  tightly 
together  in  terms  of  performance. 
Thankfully  it  wasn't  the  one-horse  race 
we  feared,  and  ATi  cut  it  fine  to  get  its 
new  Radeon  into  us  in  time  for  testing. 
But  we  got  the  card  and,  as  king  of  32bit 
rendering,  the  ATi  Radeon  isourfirst 
Editor's  Choice.  This  was  based  on 
manythings,  although  most  notablyon 
the  multitude  of  features  the  card 
boasts.  N  ot  only  does  it  have  hardware 
environment  bump  mapping  as  well  as  a 
powerful  Transform  and  Lighting  engine, 
but  it  also  sports  video  in  and  out, 
making  it  an  ideal  card  for  the  home 
video  enthusiast.  The  Radeon,  like  all  ATi 


H  ercules'  3D  Prophet  II 64MB  was  the 
hottest  card  in  the  test  -  literally 


cards,  also  has  great  motion 
compensation,  which  gives  the  highest 
quality  DVD  playbackfrom  a  card  not 
solelydedicated  to  M  PEG2  decoding. 

Features  are  one  thing  in  the  arena  of 
graphics  cards,  raw  power  is  quite 
another.  On  the  basis  of  this,  it  seemed 
only  fair  to  award  a  second  Editor's 
Choice  award  based  on  raw  power 
alone.  Thewinner  is  the  3D  Prophet  II 
64M  B  from  H  ercules,  which  was  far  and 
away  the  fastest  (and  hottest)  card  in  the 
tests.  Overclocked  by  10  percent  in  both 
its  core  and  memory,  the  heatsinks 
strapped  onto  the  card  are  both 
practical  and  attractive.  With  S-Video 
(and  a  composite  convertor)  and  a  DVI 
socket  as  standard,  it  also  has  some 
connectivity  variation  that  other  cards  do 
not.  Only  one  thing  concerned  us,  and 
that  was  the  longevity  of  an  overclocked 
card.  But  then  if  Hercules  thinks  it'll  be 
all  right,  it  probably  will. 

Thefinal  award  winner  was  chosen 
on  valuefor  money.  Forthegamer,  all 
that  is  important  is  getting  the  fastest, 
cheapest  option.  Fitting  best  into  this 
category  is  the  ELSA  GladiacGTS 
32M  B,  the  winnerofthis  month's 
Highly  Commended  award.  Considering 
most  of  the  32M  B  GeForce2  cards  run 
at  much  the  same  speed,  the  cheapest 
of  them  will  give  you  almost  thesame 
performance  as  the  best.  Common 
sense  therefore  dictates  plumping  for 
one  of  the  cheapest  cards  on  test.  As 
well  as  a  reasonable  price,  the  ELSA 
also  includes  video  in  and  out,  which  will 
comeasa  welcomeaddition  forthe 
video  enthusiast,  too. 


ELSA 's  G  ladiac  GTS  32  MB  has  a 
reasonable  price  and  some  good  features 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  HE 


GRAPHICS  CARDS 


l»J 

r 

^’l  ,j  1  1 

1  «*  1 

Getting  great  graphics  onto  a  web  page  is  a  totally  different  ball-game 
to  conventional  image  editing,  but  werve  checked  out  a  selection  of 
software  packages  tnat  can  help  you  produce  great  results 


When  you  look  at  a  web 
page  what  do  you  see? 
Unless  you've  had  the 
misfortune  to  lose  your 
way  in  some  dried-up 

backwater  last  updated  before  the  war,  chances 
are  you'll  be  looking  at  lots  of  graphics. 

Yes,  there  will  be  text,  but  even  some  of 
this  will  be  created  and  displayed  in  a  graphic 
format.  We  get  around  the  web  thanks  to 
graphics  -  nav  bars,  image  maps,  buttons  and 
banners  provide  the  links  we  use  to  navigate 
our  way  around  the  planet. 

Web  graphics  are  a  breed  apart  from  their 
paper-bound  relatives.  Regardless  of  their 
physical  size  on  the  page,  file  size  needs  to  be 
kept  to  a  minimum  so  download  times  are  no 
more  than  a  few  seconds. 

Waiting  for  a  slow  graphic-burdened  site  to 
appear  on  a  screen  is  as  much  fun  as  standing 
in  the  queue  at  the  supermarket  checkout. 

Slow  sites  don't  attract  or  keep  visitors. 
Although  the  situation  is  changing,  many 


displays  do  not  support  24bit  colour,  so  web 
graphics  must  be  carefully  formatted  to 
appear  at  their  best  on  these  screens. 

Animation  has  brought  the  web  alive. 
Animated  gifs  and  new  formats  like  swf  and 
svg  are  pushing  the  boundaries  of  what's 
possible  on  the  web. 

The  web  graphics  authoring  applications 
reviewed  in  this  group  test  do  all  these  things 
and  more.  At  their  simplest  they  provide  a 
means  of  reducing  the  file  size  of  web  graphics 
by  removing  colour  information  and  by  file 
compression.  Some  of  them  also  provide  tools 
for  assembling  graphics  created  in  other 
applications  into  an  animated  sequence. 

M  ore  sophisticated  applications  provide  a 
raft  of  tools  for  adding  HTML  and  JavaScript 
functionality  to  web  images  and  offer  an 
integrated  pathway  to  the  web  page  via 
Wysiwyg  HTM  L  authoring  applications. 

Thanks  to  these  applications  creating  good 
looking,  fast  moving  web  graphics  has  never 
been  easier. 


218  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


ILLUSTRATION  TOM  GREEN 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION  >  > 


Adobe  ImageReady 


IMAGEREADY  WAS  initially  released 
asastandaloneapplication.  Adobe 
didn't  want  to  burden  Photoshop  with  a 
raft  of  tools  and  features  that  wouldn't 
be  needed  by  its  coreusers  -  mainly 
producing  high-quality  graphics  for 
print-  but  couldn't  ignorethegrowing 
market  for  web  graphics  tools. 

But  with  Adobe's  relentless  quest  for 
tighter  integration  of  its  products  it  was 
only  a  question  of  timebeforethetwo 
products  were  brought  together.  N  ow  a 
button  at  the  bottom  of  thetoolbar 
allows  you  to  switch  between 
Photoshop  and  ImageReady. 

Actions,  history,  layers  and  almost 
everything  else  makethejourney across 
with  your  image  file  and  the  interface  is 
near  identical.  So  the  web  features  are 
there  for  those  who  want  them 
and  invisibleto  those  who  don't. 

N  ot  all  of  the  web  tools  reside 
in  ImageReady.  Photoshop 
p ro vi d es  a  save  f o r  web  feature  so 
you  can  compare  image  size  and 
quality  given  particularfiletypes 
and  compression  options,  but  for 
anything  else  I mageReady  is  where 
the  web  action  is. 

When  you  first  jump  to 
I  mageReady  from  Photoshop, 
everything  looks  pretty  much  the 
same,  except  fora  couple  of  web- 
specific  tools  and  palettes. 

The  image-editing  window  is 
tabbed,  enabling  you  to  easily 
toggle  between  your  original  image 
and  a  preview  of  the  optimised  version. 
As  with  thesavefor  web  dialog  boxin 
Photoshop  you  can  displayoptimised 
previews  two  or  four-up  to  make  visual 
comparisons-  filesizesand  predicted 
download  times  are  displayed  below 
each  thumbnail. 

You  can  select  fileformat, 
compression  settings  and  palette 
options  in  the  optimise  palette  and  these 
can  be  saved  and  added  to  a  pulldown 
menu  of  commonly  used  pre-sets.  A  neat 
d  ro  p  I  et  f eat u  re  I  ets  yo  u  sa ve  o  p t  i  m  i  sed 
palette  settings  to  a  desktop  icon.  You 
can  then  drag  and  drop  folders  of  images 
onto  thisfor  batch  optimisation. 

Thefinal  giveaway  that  this  is 
ImageReadyand  not  Photoshop  is  the 
floating  palette  at  the  bottom  of  the 
screen  that  holdstheanimation,  slice 
and  rollover  tabbed  palettes. 

Image  slicing  facilities  are 
comprehensive,  flexible  and  easy  to 
work  with.  ImageReady  automatically 
creates  one  big  slice  including  the  whole 
document.  You  add  user  slices  with  the 
slicetool  to  carvethepageup  into 
rectangular  segments.  Gaps  are 
automatically  filled  in  foryou  and  each 
sliceissequentiallynumbered.  You  can 
also  create  slices  automatically  from 
guides  or  a  rectangular  selection. 


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using  the  optimise  palette  and  colour  table 


To  optimise  slicesjust  apply  settings 
from  the  optimise  palette  to  the  selected 
sliceand  you  can  applythesamesettings 
to  a  group  of  slices.  ImageReady  provides 
plenty  of  scopefor  slice  editing,  allowing 
you  to  combine,  divide,  duplicate,  resize, 
arrange  and  order  slices. 

In  theslice  tabbed  palette  you  can 
defineslice content  as  imageand  no 
image,  the  latter  containing  solid 
background  colours  or  text.  Here's 
where  you  also  define  the  MnkURLand, 
if  you're  using  frames,  the  frame  in 
which  the  linked  page  is  displayed. 

Rollovers  are  layer-based;  changes  you 
make  using  layer  palette  commands  and 
options  affect  only  the  current  rollover 
state,  and  anything  that  changes  the 
layer's  pixel  values  affects  all  states.  Layers 
can  be  turned  on  and  off  selectivelyfor 
any  of  the  rollover  states,  making  the 
creation  of  multi-state  rollovers  from 
layer-based  graphics  simple.  Like 
M  acromedia's  Fireworks,  you  can  also 
create  rollovers  where  the  action  occurs  in 
a  different  si  ice  to  the  trigger,  and  you  can 
display  animations  in  rollover  states. 

ImageReady  has  nothing  to  match 
Fireworks'  rollover  preview  facilities, 
though,  so  it's  back  to  the  browser  to 
check  that  everything  works. 

Animation  is  also  based  on  layers - 


Slicing  the  ImageR  eady  way:  T he  slice 
boundaries  snap  to  each  other  and 
additional  slices  (5  and  6)  are 
automatically  created  to  fill  gaps 

the  contents  of  each  animation  frame 
being  determined  by  layer  visibility.  Each 
frame  is  displayed  as  a  thumbnail  in  the 
animation  palette  and  you  can  set  inter¬ 
frame  delay  rates  with  a  pop-up  menu. 

Tweening  -  the  automatic  creation  of 
intermediate  frames  -  is  also  layer- 
based.  I  mageReady  can  insert  frames 
displaying  a  smooth  transition  of  layer 
opacity,  position  or  effects. 

Foranyone  working  with  Photoshop, 
ImageReady  is  perfect  for  producing  web 
graphics  as  it  works  in  the  same  way. 

If  you'realready  using  another 
image-editing  application  you'd  need  to 
think  carefully  before  investing  in  a 
packagethat  duplicates  much  of  what 
you  already  have.  You  can  do  most  if  not 
all  of  this  with  standaloneapplications 
and  shareware,  it's  just  not  all 
conveniently  to  hand  in  one  place. 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £468.83  with  Photoshop  5.5 
(£399  ex  VAT) 

CONTACT  Adobe020 8606 4001 
www.adobe.com 

SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium 
processor,  Windows95/98/NT4, 64M  B  of 
RAM ,  125M  B  of  disk  space,  CD-ROM 
PROS  Greatslicing,  animation  and  rollover 
tools 

CONS  Lack  of  previews 
OVERALL  I  mageReady  has  the  best 
graphicstools,  but  it'sjust  pipped  into  the 
runner-up  position  when  it  comes  to  the  web 
sideofthings 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


A  nark  Emotion  3D 


ANARK'S  EMOTION  3D  is  unlike 
anything  else  reviewed  in  this  group  test 
-  it  takes  a  totally  original  approach  to 
developing  web  graphics.  Thesoftware 
istheweb  equivalent  of  the  Playdoh  Fun 
Factory-  the  children's  sausage 
machinetoy  where  you  shove  brightly 
coloured  plasticine  in  oneend  and, 
depending  on  thetemplate,  starfish, 
flowers  or  plasticine  sausages  come  out 
of  the  other. 

Emotion's  brilliance  lies  in  the 
combination  of  a  widerangeof  superbly 
animated  graphics,  a  large  degree  of 
control  over  their  appearance  and  a 
simple  linear  interfaceto  tie  it  all  together. 

You  don't  need 
themanual,  although 
oneissupplied, 
because  everything 
is  obvious  right  from 
the  start  and  the 
temptation  to  play 
is,  in  anycase, 
irresistible. 

There  are  no 
conventional  menus, 
dialog  boxes,  or  any 
oftheother  tools 
you'd  expect  to  find 
in  a  normal  image 
editor.  Eight  buttons 
takeyou  to  anyoneof  theediting 
processes,  or  alternativelyyou  can 
follow  through  sequentially  using 
thewizard. 

The  first  step  is  to  select  a  template. 
The  sample  templates  that  Anark 
provides  are  divided  into  classic  and 
f  u  n .  T  h  e  f o  r m  er  f  eat u  res  b  u  1 1  ets,  c h  eck 
marks  and  symbols,  which  are  more 
suited  to  serious  business  use,  while  the 
latter  offers  a  collection  of  cartoon 
flowers,  birds,  fish  and  other  unlikely 
looking  objects. 

This  is  the  first  taste  you  get  of 
Emotion's  stunningly  smooth 
animation.  If  you've  seen  thePixar 
Trademark  animation  featuring  an 
anglepoiselamp,  you  will  havea  good 
idea  both  of  the  smoothness  and  realism 
of  the  movement.  Of  course,  these  are 
running  at  24  frames  per  second  (fps), 
so  when  it  comes  to  exporting  gif 
animations  therewill  be  a  considerable 
qualityhit. 

Before  you  move  on  to  the  next  stage 
there's  actually  quite  a  lot  you  can  do  to 
customise  the  template  animation.  You 
can  rotate  the  object  around  three  axes, 
scale  it  and  change  its  position  on  the 
background.  This  is  achieved  by  clicking 
on  the  appropriate  adjuster  button 
below  the  display  and  simply  dragging 
with  the  mouse.  You  can  also  changethe 
light  source  and  rendering  style. 

Next  you  can  add  a  background  from 
a  template  selection  in  the  same  way  as 
you  chosetheanimation  object.  Given 


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E  motion's  export  options:  You  can  go  back  to  any 
editing  stage  using  the  blue  buttons  at  the  top 


the  profusion  offish  it's  a  shamethere 
are  no  sea  backgrounds,  but  you  can 
always  create  your  own  and  there's  an 
option  to  create  any  plain  coloured 
background  you  want. 

The  next  bit  is  where  it  starts  to 
become  reallyfun.  The animesh  engine 
is  where  you  applya  rangeof  animation 
effects  to  your  object.  These  range 
from  simple  rotation  and  looping  to 
comp  lex  effects  that  simulate  human 
activities  like  bowing,  laughing  and 
breaking  wind! 

Even  the  simplest  of  these  is  more 
sophisticated  than  you'd  expect. 
Applying  a  'bend  up  and  down'  loop 
effect  to  the  dolphin  object  makes  its 
fins  and  tail  oscillate,  other  body  parts  - 
the  head  and  eyes  -  move  in  harmony  to 
give  a  fairly  realistic  impression  of  the 
mammal  swimming. 

Character  animations  are 
categorised  as  excited,  goin'  places 
and  mellow,  providing  a  wide  range 
of  possibilities  from  walking,  skipping, 
dancing  and  sneakingto  merely  looking, 
breathing  or  snoring.  Strength  and 
speed  of  effect  can  be  adjusted  by 
slider  controls. 

Next  in  line  is  the  effects 
department,  which  provides  a  fair 
degree  of  image  adjustment,  including 
brightness  and  contrast,  hue/ 
saturation,  transparencyand 
posterisation,  in  addition  to  mosaic, 
shadow,  blur  and  glow  effects. 

Emotion  has  a  limited  JavaScript 


A  dding  character  to  animations  in  E motion  3D 


rollover  capability.  You  can  select  which  of 
theeffectsisdisplayed  on  mouseover.  You 
could,  forexample,  havetheanimation 
activateon  mouseover,  orchangethe 
transparency,  or  add  a  glow.  The  program 
exports  the  two  states  as  gifs  and  the 
JavaScript  in  an  HTM  L  document. 

The  penultimate  panel  provides 
comprehensive  optimisation  and  export 
options.  You  can  set  theframe  rate, 
check  the  preview  and  export  an 
animated  gif,  or  export  individual 
frames  in  a  variety  of  formats  and  work 
on  them  in  another  application. 

Gif  options  include  bit  depth  (in 
sensible  lbit  increments),  dither,  palette 
and  anti-aliasing.  A  small  status  bar 
under  the  preview  window  can  be 
configured  to  display  theframe  rate, 
duration,  filesize,  or  download  time. 

Emotion  3D  isso  simpleto  use,  a 
child  could  produce  an  animated  gif  in 
minutes  that  would  outshine  most  of 
what  you  seeon  theweb,  or  anything 
you  could  create  in  the  other 
applications  reviewed  here  given  all  the 
time  you  wanted.  Ithasagood  rangeof 
templates  that,  in  combination  with  the 
animation  pre-sets  and  user  controls, 
provides  diverse  output  as  well  as  being 
a  lot  of  fun. 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  $24.95  (freetrial  version 
also  availablefor  download) 

CONTACT  www.anark.com 
SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium  133, 
Windows95/98/NT4, 32M  B  of  RAM ,  75M  B 
of  disk  space,  OpenGL 
PROS  Easy  to  use,  stunning  animation 
CONS  Limited,  but  great  at  what  it  does 
OVERALL  Emotion  3D  issimplequick,  cheap, 
easy,  lotsoffun.  All  in  all,  it's  just  brilliant 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION  >  > 


Beatware  e-Picture  Pro 


COMBINING  DRAWING,  animation 
and  export  tools  in  a  sophisticated 
package,  e-Picture  Pro  takes  a  bit  of  effort 
to  get  used  to,  especially  if  you  are  not 
familiar  with  timeline-based  animation 
techniques.  The  rewards,  however,  are 
impressive3D  animations  that  would  be 
difficult  to  produce  using  conventional 
frame-based  packages.  In  terms  of  what  it 
does  and  how  it  works  it's  probably 
closest  to  M  acromedia  Fireworks. 

The  list  of  features  is  impressive.  It 
can  do  all  the  usual  stuff  such  as  image 
slicing,  JavaScript  rollovers  and 
optimisation,  but  it  also  provides 
powerful  image-editing  tools  and 
supports  a  wide  variety  of  object 
types.  These  can  be  created  in  situ 
using  an  array  of  drawing  tools, 
including  text  on  a  path,  3D  text 
and  a  Bezier  pen.  A  wide  range  of 
image  types  can  be  imported 
including  Photoshop  and 
Illustrator  files,  as  well  as  3D 
models  in  3dsand  dxf  format. 

The  interface  is  pretty  scary  to 
start  with,  but  once  you  find  your 
way  around  it's  less  intimidating. 
Thedocument  window  is 
surrounded  byan  overscan  area 
that  makes  it  possibleto  animate 
objects  outside  the  image  boundaries, 
or  you  can  just  use  it  as  a  pasteboard. 

Thedocument  window  is  hemmed  in 
by  a  plethora  of  palettes,  although  you 
don't  need  all  of  theseopen  all  thetime. 
The  most  important  are  the  Inspector  - 
where  you  change  object  attributes;  the 
0  bject  palette,  which  lists  all  the  objects 
in  the  document  and  can  be  used  to 
select  them;  and  the  Animation  Palette. 
This  displays  objects  down  the  left-hand 
sideand  frame  numbers  along  thetop  in 
a  timeline-type  format  familiar  to  anyone 
who's  used  Flash  or  a  home  video¬ 
editing  package.  Most oftheediting 
action  takes  place  within  these  palettes. 

The  0  bjects  Palette  is  tabbed  into 
several  context-sensitive  sections.  If  you 
select  a  3D  object  thefront  tab  displays 
model  info  and  provides  rotation 
through  three  axes,  as  well  as  rendering 
and  lighting  options.  The  next  one 
provides  layer  opacity  and  blend  options, 
followed  byonefor  applying  filters. 
Lastly,  you  can  applyoneof  five  shadow 
and  glow  effects,  these  are  fully  editable 
and  can  be  removed  at  anytime. 

It  is  easy  to  produce  complicated 
animation  effects  using  tweening.  Short 
for  in-betweening,  tweening  refers  to  the 
process  of  creating  the  intermediate 
frames  of  an  animation  between  the 
start  and  end  points. 

To  create  tweened  animation  you 
first  select  the  start  frame  in  the 
animation  palette,  draw  or  import  the 
object  you  want  to  animate  and  position 
it  where  you  want  it  to  start.  Then  you 


clickon  theend  frameand  drag  the 
objectto  its  finishing  position.  As  you 
drag,  a  motion  line  appears  between  the 
start  and  end  positions  with  a  square 
dot  representing  thetweened  object 
position  in  each  intermediateframe. 

Pressing  the  Play  button  confirms 
that  your  object  moves  from  start  to  end 
position  in  a  straight  line  at  a  constant 
speed.  That's  all  there  is  to  it.  To  add 
keyframes  you  go  to  the  relevant  frame 
and  drag  the  object  to  a  new  position. 

For  more  complex  tweening,  the 
tweening  wizard  provides  a  high  degree 
of  control  over  every  aspect  of  an 
animated  object's  appearance. 
Attributes,  which  are  displayed  in  nested 
Explorer-style  format  in  theAnimation 
window,  includeVisibility,  3D 
Properties,  Text  Properties,  and 
Transformation.  So,  as  an  object 
progresses  along  its  path  you  can  make 
it  change  colour,  fade  in  and  out,  rotate, 
speed  up  and  slow  down. 

Tweening  wizard  path  pre-sets 
provide  a  quick  method  of  setting  up 
curved,  circular  and  wave-shaped  paths, 
as  well  as  applying  simple  formulae  to 
vary  the  object's  speed.  Complicated 
animation  effects,  such  as  a  bouncing 
ball  or  falling  leaves  can  beproduced 
fairly  effortlessly  this  way. 

Inevitably,  these  sophisticated 
effects  work  best  at  high  frame  rates 
that,  dueto  bandwidth  considerations, 
are  impossible,  or  at  least  unwise  to 
maintain  when  exporting  for  web  use. 
Animation  export  formats  include 


A  bove:  Using  the  tweening  wizard  to 
create  a  bouncing  bail  animation 
L  eft:  e-Picture's  export  wizard  provides 
two  and  four-up  file  format  comparisons 

RealVideo,  Q  uicktime,  svg  and 
M  acromedia  Flash,  making  it  an  ideal 
tool  for  all  kinds  of  animated  content 
creation  in  addition  to  animated  gifs. 

The  Export  wizard  provides  no 
means  of  reducing  the  frame  rate, 
though,  so  you  need  to  think  about  the 
intended  destination  before  you  start. 
Having  said  that,  a  19-frame  animated 
banner  camedown  to  just  over  3KB  with 
a  128-colour  websafe  palette,  which  is 
small  enough  for  even  the  most 
demanding  users. 

The  export  wizard  dialog  box  has  a 
big  preview  window  that  can  display  two 
or  four-up  comparison  previews.  So  it's 
possible,  forexample,  to  comparegif 
and  Flash  versions  of  the  same  banner. 

Macromedia  has  some  serious 
competition  on  its  hands.  Put  simply, 
e-Picture  Pro  provides  the  means  to 
create  and  generate  good-quality 
animated  graphics  with  a  fraction  of  the 
learning  effort  required  to  master  more 
complexauthoring  applications. 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  $179  (orderonline) 

CONTACT  Beatware  www.beatware.com 

SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium  200, 
Win95/98/2000/NT,  32M  B  of  RAM , 

20M  B  of  disk  space 

PROS  Easytweened animation;  lotsof export 
formats;  good  documentation  and  tutorials 
CONS  No  frames  setting  in  export  wizard 
OVERALL  A  feature-rich  package  that  is  a 
serious  alternative  to  Flash  and  Fireworks 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Compression  andfileformats 


UTI.K  CLAtaOl  [h 


though  they  cover  thesame 
rangethescales aren't  uniform 
anda50settinginone 
application  may  not  render  the 
sameresults  as  another. 

Settings  arealso  fairly 
arbitrary  and  don't  giveany 
indication  of  compression 
ratio  -  using  the50  setting 
won't  necessarily  compress 
yourfilesbyafactorof  2:1. 

Using  a  setting  of  70  to  80 
usually  produces  resultsthat 
areindistinguishablefromthe 
original;  anything  lessthan 
that  and  you'll  start  to  noticea 
degradation  in  imagequality. 

Thejpeg  format  has  most 
difficultydealingwith 
contrasting  boundaries  and 
thisiswhereyou  start  to  get 
problemsatthelower  quality 
settings. To  compensate,  some 
apps  provide  a  softness  setti  ng 
-  basically  a  blurfilter. 

Another  thingto  watch  for 


Compression  and  file 
formats  areso  closely 
bound  together  that  it's  hardly 
possible,  or  even  desirableto 
talk  about  onewithout 
ref  eren  cetotheother.The 
most  important  thing  to  be 
aware  of  with  compression  is 
whether  it  is  lossy  or  lossless, 
or  to  put  it  another  way, 
whether  thereduction  in  file 
sizeisachieved  through 
removal  of  imagedataor  by  a 
moreefficient  method  of 
representi  ng  and  stori  ng  it. 

Themost  widespread  lossy 
compression  algorithm  isjpeg, 
which  isalsothenameofthe 
fileformat  which  uses  it.  Jpeg 
standsforjoint  Photographic 
Experts  G  roup,  thecommittee 
that  established  theformat. 

Thejpeg  format  stores 
i  m ages  as  ei  t h  er  greyscal  e  o  r 
24bit  (sometimes called  true) 
colour.  It's  well  suited  to 
photographic  subjects  because 
of  this  and  also  becausethe 
compression  algorithm  works 
on  thebasisthatthecolour 
data  removed  is  largely 
unnoticed  bythehuman  eye. 

Oneofthegreat  things 
about  thejpeg  format  isthat 
you  can  dictate  by  how  much 
theimages should  be 
compressed.  It  iscapableof 
compression  rates  up  to  20:1, 
but  thegreater  thecompres- 
sion,thelowerthequalityof 
theresultingfile. 

M  ost  applications  providea 
slidingscalefromOto  100, 
with  thebest  quality  and 
lowest  compression  settings  at 
thetopofthescale,but 


To  dither  or  not  to  dither.  Clockwise  from  top  left:  original, 
websafe  dithered  gif,  websafe  undithered  gif,  jpg 


W  hat  jpeg  does  to  text.  N  otice 
the  halo  effect  at  the  dome  edges 


216  websafe  colours  as 
displayed  in  ImageR  eady's 
colour  table  palette 


isrecompression.lfyou 
continually  open,  edit  and 
resaveafilewith  jpeg 
compression  thequalityof  the 
image  will  cumulatively 
degrade.  If  you  need  to  do  this, 
savethefilein  a  lossless 
intermediateformat  and  only 
savethefinal  version  asajpeg. 

Itsinabilityto  cope  with 
edgedetail  makesjpeg 
unsuitablefor  lineart, 
il  lustrations  using  flat  colour, 
(logos,  typographic  art).  For 
non-photographic  subjects  gif 
isa  better  choice,  not  just 
becauseof  its  compression,  a 
lossless  algorithm  called  LZW 
(though  there'sa  lossy  gif 
option  available),  butforthe 
control  over thecolour  palette 
it  provides. 

Jpeg  isa 24bit  colourfile 
format.  Whether  your  image 
hasonecolourorseveral 
million  all  24  bits  are  used  to 
display  thecolour  information 
for  each  pixel.  With  gif  you  can 
alter  thecolour  palette,  or  bit 
depth,  to  suittheimage.  If 
thereareonlyfour  colours  in 
theimageyou  need  useonlya 
four-colour  palette-  two  bits 
per  pixel  to  display  them. 


Reducingthecolour  bit 
depth  has  drastic 
consequencesforfilesize.A 
468x60  pixel  banner  contains 
a  total  of  28,080  pixels.  A  24bit 
uncompressed  filewould  be 
around  82KB.  Gifs  usean  8bit 
256-colour  pal  ette(216  if  you 
a  r  e  u  si  n  g  websafe  co  I  o  u  rs)  so , 
uncompressed  and  usingthe 
full  palette, thefilewould 
comeout  at  27KB.  But  if  you 
reduced  thepaletteto  eight 
colours  (3  bits)  that  would 
comedown  to  10KB. The 
LZW  compression  would 
further  reducethis. 

Oneway  to  represent  more 
coloursin  agifthan  are 
availablein  thepaletteis 
dithering.Thisdoesn'tmean 
t  ak  i  n  g  f  o  rever  to  d  eci  d  e  wh  i  ch 
ofthelimited  coloursisthe 
best  option,  but  combining 
two  coloursusingapixel 
pattern  block  to  create  a  third. 
Dithering  can  give  poor 
resultswhenviewedina 
browser,  though  some 
applications  providesafe 
colour  combinationsfortwo- 
colour  dithers.  On  thewhole 
it's  best  to  stick  to  the  websafe 
palette,  reducethebit  depth  as 
faraspossiblewithout 
compromising  imagequality 
too  much  and  don't  dither. 

A  newfileformat  called  png 
(PortableNetworksGraphics, 
pronounced  ping)  has  recently 
been  developed  to  replacegif. 
Likegif,  png  offers  (slightly 
moreefficient)  lossless 
compression.  Unlikegif,  it 
supports  up  to  48bit  colour, 
multi-level  transparency, 
gamma  correction  and  faster 
interlacing.  Another  advantage 
of  png  for  softwarevendors  is 
that  they  don't  haveto  paya 
licencefeeto  Unisys,  which 
ownsthepatent  on  theLZW 
compression  algorithm  used 
bygif.Onedisadvantageisthat 
browsers  haveonlyjust  begun 
to  support thepngformat. 

All  thisfiddling  with  bit 
depth  andoptimisingto 
websafepalettesisonly 
necessary  becausethereare 
still  manypeopleintheworld 
u  si  n  g  graph  i  cs  cards  i  n  capabl  e 
of  displaying  morethan  256 
colours.  As24bit-capable 
displays  becomethenorm,  gif 
and  websafe  palettes  will  be 
rendered  obsolete. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  WX: 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION  >  > 


Equilibrium  DeBabelizer  Pro  4.5.1 


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u 


A  bove:  C  reating  a  Superpalette  for  an 
animated  gif  from  the  batchlist 
L  eft:  A  pplying  the  superpalette  to  the 
open  images  in  the  batchlist 


DEBABELIZER  PRO  is  an  industrial- 
strength  application  for  editing  and 
optimising  images fortheweb  and 
multimedia  applications.  DeBabelizer's 
powerful  and  flexible  scripting  and 
automation  features  make  it  ideal  for 
busy  studios  or  people  who  have  many 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  images  to 
knock  into  shapeon  a  daily  basis. 

DeBabelizer's  interface  is  a  little 
intimidating  to  begin  with  and  can 
quickly  become  cluttered.  This  is 
possibly  the  price  you  payto  beableto 
do  so  much  to  so  many  images. 

The  program  was  last  updated  in 
1998  and  then  onlyminorfeatures  were 
added,  such  as  support  for  Quicktime3, 
improved  handling  of  other  video 
formats,  scripting  enhancements  and 
better  plug-in  support.  H  owever,  it  was 
well  ahead  of  thegameto  begin  with 
and  DeBabelizer  remains  the  best 
way  to  optimise  images  in  quantity. 

Although  best  known  for  its 
optimisation  and  batch  processing, 
the  software  provides  a  set  of 
image-editing  tools,  including 
competent  selection  tools,  cloning, 
transparency,  compositing,  text  and 
resampling.  These  are,  however, 
beginning  to  look  extremely  dated 
by  comparison  with  what's  available 
in  even  the  most  limited  of  home 
digital  darkroom  applications. 

DeBabelizer  gives  as  much 
precedenceto  palettes  as  to  images. 
Other  editors  provide  a  single  palette  that 
displays  the  colour  tablefor  the  current 
image,  but  DeBabelizer  shows  each 
image  with  its  associated  palette  below. 

Superpalettes  -  custom  palettes  that 
work  across  groups  of  images  -  are 
central  to  the  optimisation  process. 
When  you  create  a  superpalette,  equal 
weight  is  given  to  all  the  images  that 
contribute  to  it.  You  can,  however,  skew 
thepalettein  favourof  a  particular 
image  or  group  of  images. 

The  action  arrow  isa  handywayof 
applying  attributes  from  one  window  to 
another.  To  add  an  image  to  the 
superpalette  you  just  drag  its  action 
arrow  onto  the  superpalette  window. 
Themoretimesyou  do  this,  the  more 
the  palette  is  skewed  to  favour  colours  in 
that  particular  image.  You  can  likewise 
apply  the  superpalette  to  individual 
images  by  dragging  the  action  arrow  in 
theoppositedirection. 

Although  you  can  optimise  small 
groups  of  images  like  this,  sayfor  an 
animated  banner,  website,  or  CD-ROM , 
DeBabelizer's  real  strength  lies  in  its 
scripting  and  batch-processing  features. 
T he  W atch M  e  feature  reco rd s  act i o ns  to 
an  open  script  as  you  executethem  in 
the  workspace,  or  you  can  drag  and 
drop  operations  from  the  log  window. 

In  thescript  window  you  can  edit, 


delete  and  re-order  actions,  add  special 
operations  such  as  pauses  and  loops 
and  changeoperation  parameters. 

Scripts  can  beapplied  to  individual 
images  or  animations,  but  when 
combined  with  a  batchlist, 

DeBabelizer's  real  power  becomes 
apparent.  Batchlists  let  you  create  and 
organise  groups  of  images,  animation 
frames,  palettes  and  superpalettes  for 
automatic  processing,  either  directly  in 
the  workspace,  or  by  scripts. 

Batchlists  are  reference  pointers  to 
files  so  you  can  usefilesfrom  any  source 
and  organisethem  as  you  pleasewithout 
affecting  the  location  of  the  source  files. 

Batchlists  are  easy  to  create  and  edit. 
You  can  drag  images  into  a  batch 
window  using  the  action  arrow,  right- 
click  on  the  batchlist  window  to  add 
files,  or  drag  them  in  from  Windows 
Explorer.  When  adding  an  animation  file 
to  a  batchlist,  DeBabelizer  creates  a  new 
file  for  each  frame  and  adds  thefile- 
name  to  the  batchlist.  You  can  also 
easily  extract  files  from  an  HTM  L  page 
into  a  batchlist,  run  a  script,  then 
re-save  them.  You  can  even  drag  in  the 
entire  website  folder  and  DeBabelizer 
will  create  a  group  for  each  page.  This 
makes  it  possibleto  quicklyoptimiseall 
the  graphics  in  an  existing  website. 

Applying  scripts  to  batchlists 
provides  a  convenient  way  to  automate 


all  kinds  of  processes,  from  simplefile- 
format  conversion  to  image  editing  and 
optimisation.  DeBabelizer  also  provides 
off-the-peg  batch-automation  processes 
-  essentially  script  templates. 

Automation  process  commands 
include  C  reate  Superpalette  and  Remap, 
SaveWith  Superpalette,  Compareand 
Composite.  Compare workson  two  files 
and  generates  an  alpha  channel  with 
differing  pixels,  whileCompositeoverlays 
pixelsfrom  oneimageonto  another. 

ProScripts  wizards  take  batch 
automation  a  stage  further,  providing  an 
easy  way  to  create  scri  pts  fo  r  generati  ng 
common  graphic  types. 

M  uch  of  what  DeBabelizer  pioneered 
has  been  adopted  by  more  mainstream 
web-editing  applications  over  the  past 
few  years.  All  the  same,  if  you  want 
complete  control  over  optimisation  and 
need  the  sheer  muscle  of  an  application 
designed  with  bulk  processing  in  mind, 
then  there's  no  better  way  to  do  it. 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £328.88  (£279.99  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Computers  Unlimited 
020  8358  5857  www.equilibrium.com 

SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  486  processor, 
Windows  95/NT4, 16M  B  of  RAM ,  20M  B  of 
disk  space,  CD-ROM 

PROS  Powerful  scripting  and  batch  processing 
CONS  Too  much  on-screen  clutter;  steep 
learning  curve 

OVERALL  With  all  thecontrol  DeBabelizer 
offers,  it's  a  real  image-processing  workhorse 


|  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Fluffy  Clouds  Ignite  2.0 


IGNITE  CAN  BE  USED  either  as  a 
standaloneapplication  orasa 
Photoshop-compatible  plug-in.  It's 
produced  bya  British  company,  Fluffy 
Clouds,  and  a  30-day  trial  version  is 
available  at  www.ignite-it.co.uk.  The 
install  file  is  onlyjust  over  a  megabyte, 
so  it  doesn't  take  long  to  download. 

W  hen  we  downloaded  the  installer  it 
recognised  several  compatible  image 
editors  on  thetest  PC  including  Corel 
PhotoPaint  and  PaintShop  Pro,  as  well 
as  Photoshop,  and  installed  a  plug-in  for 
all  of  them.  With  theplug-in  installed 
you  can  export  files  directly  to  Ignite 
from  your  image-editing  application. 

Ignitedoes  not  claim  to  bea 
graphic-design  application.  Like 
most  of  the  products  in  this  group 
test  it  provides  a  range  of  tools  you 
can  useto  make  your  images  better 
suited  to  web  display.  Thosetools 
includeoptimisation,  animation 
and  image  slicing. 

The  Ignite  wayof  working  isa 
littleunorthodox.  Ratherthan 
working  on  an  imagefile,  then 
exporting  theedited/optimised  file, 
you  set  up  and  save  output  files  at 
the  outset,  which  you  can  then  view 
alongsidetheoriginal  sourcefile. 

To  experiment  with  different 
formats  or  palette  settings  you 
simply  create  several  output  files.  The 
original  SourceView,  along  with  any 
output  files  you  have  created,  are  then 
displayed  in  a  tabbed  viewing  area.  You 
can  togglethrough  them  simply  by 
clicking  on  theappropriatetab. 

There's  no  limit  to  the  number  of 
viewing  windows  you  can  have  open  at 
onetime  so  it'spossibleto  makesideby 
sidecomparisons  between  theoriginal 
and  numerous  output  files  with  different 
palette  settings. 

With  animated  gifs,  theframesare 
displayed  in  filmstrip  fashion,  with 
rulers  in  the  source  view  and  trim  marks 
intheoutputview. 

In  practice,  with  something  likea 
banner,  usemorethan  four  windows 
and  things  start  to  get  a  little  cluttered . 
This  is  especially  true  if  you  havea 
number  of  floating  palettes  open  as  well 
as  the  excellent  cue  card  window.  You 
can  quickly  set  things  up  to  emulate 
something  like  ImageReady's  more 
ordered  layout,  but  the  window  layout 
can't  besaved  with  thefile,  so  you'll 
need  to  do  this  every  time  you  open 
theapplication. 

Editing  changes  madeto  thesource 
file  are  automatically  updated  in  the 
output  file.  The  inspector  panel  provides 
access  to  all  the  editing  tools  other  than 
those  you  select  from  menus  or  the  five 
toolbars  docked  atthetop  of  thescreen. 
The  inspector  is  context-sensitive, 
displaying  editing  tools  and  feedback 


IQfjarSI ! 


D  isplaying  the  HTML  for  a  sliced  navbar  -  the  cell 
download  times  are  only  displayed  for  gifs 


when  a  source  window  is  active  and 
palette  information  for  output  windows. 

Clicking  on  thesplit  imagedivides  it 
into  four  and  you  can  further  subdivide 
and  join  cells  using  a  floating  toolbar. 
TheHTM  Lcodecan  be  viewed  in  a 
separatewindow  and  copied  to  the 
clipboard  for  insertion  into  an  existing 
page.  Alt  text,  hyperlinks  and  the  image 
slice nameareall  inputto  fieldson 
the  inspector. 

In  output  mode,  the  inspector  allows 
you  to  set  the  gif  file  parameters - 
transparency,  interlacing,  looping  and 
so  on,  and  choosethe  palette.  Three 
options  are  available,  websafe,  adaptive 
and  specified  and  you  can  choosethe  bit 
depth  via  another  pulldown  menu. 

Using  the  inspector  in  combination 
with  the  output  views  in  this  way  you  can 
quicklyfind  theoptimal  palette  settings 
for  an  animation.  You  can  preview  the 
animation  using  the  cassette-style 
buttonson  thetoolbar,  or  open  it  in  a 
browser.  The  built-in  preview  is  more 
useful,  offering  256-colour  and  Apple 
simulation.  There's  also  a  handy 
animation  sequencer  which  you  can  use 
to  rearrange  frame  order  and  set  delay 
timings.  This  has  a  linear  change  feature 
which  sets  delays  of  decreasing  or 
increasing  length  for  each  frame, 
allowing  you  to  produceanimationsthat 
get  progressively  faster  or  slower. 

Ignite  hasn't  quite  got  to  the  stage  of 
having  a  really  hot  product,  but  it's 


C  hanging  the  bit  depth  for  one  of  the 
output  files-  download  times  are 
displayed  bottom  right 

smouldering  nicely.  The  interface  is 
flexible  enough  to  be  organised  to  suit 
your  personal  preferences,  but  needs  to 
be  moretightly  ordered  to  prevent 
confusion.  Fartoo  much  information  is 
presented  textually  and  with  several 
output  windowsopen  atonceitcan  be 
difficult  to  know  to  which  filethe 
inspector  information  applies.  More  use 
could  be  made  of  drag  and  drop.  Being 
ableto  dragthetabbed  output  panels  to 
create  a  new  window  would  bean 
improvement,  as  would  some  kind  of 
docking  system  for  the  multitude  of 
floating  palettes. 

It  could  also  use  a  little  more 
automation,  some  palette  pre-sets 
would  bea  good  start,  and  basic  batch 
processing  should  bea  priority  for  the 
next  release. 

Despitethose shortcomings  it's 
basically  a  well  put  together  piece  of 
software  with  everything  you  need  to 
create  animated  gifs  from  individual 
source  files. 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £99.88  (£85  exVAT) 

CONTACT  FluffyClouds01865 318103 
www.ignite-it.co.uk 

SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium  100, 

Windows95/  98/2000/NT,  16M  B  of  RAM , 

20MB  of  disk  space 

PROS  Sound  features;  good  guidance 

CONS  Needs  work  on  interface  and 

automation 

OVERALL  Well  crafted  basic  gif  animator 
held  back  slightly  by  its  cluttered  interface 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION  >  > 


Shareware  and  pi  ug-i  ns 


Creatingweb  graphicson  a 
budget  couldn't  be  easier. 
There'sverylittleworth  having 
that'sabsolutelyfree;but 
there'san  abundanceof  cheap 
plug-ins,  sh  areware  an  d  d  em  o 
software  to  tryout. 

If  you  haveafull  copyof 
Photoshop  5.5  you  probably 
won't  want  to  bother  with 
them  as  most  of  what  they 
offer  is  included  inthelatest 
version  of  Photoshop,  or 
ImageReady  2.0. 

lf,ontheother 
hand,you'reworking 
with  an  older  version 
of  Photoshop,  or 
another  image-editing 
application  that  is 
plug-in-compatible, 
such  as  Paint  Shop  Pro 
or  Corel  PhotoPaint, 
these  shareware  plug- 
inscan  providemany 
ofthefunctionsof 
our  group  test 
applications  at  a 
fraction  ofthecost. 

Oneplacethatisa 
goldmineof  applicationsfor 
optimising  and  compressing 
web  graphics  is 

im.  It's  not 

strictly  speaking  shareware, 
rather  commercial 
applicationsthatyou  can 
download  in  demo  format. 
Someof  these  aresave 
disabled,  others  havelimited 
functionality,  for  example 
Supergif  cannot  batch 
process. 

All  theBoxtopsoft  products 
areavailablefor  Windows 
and  M  ac,  they  featu  resimple 
elegant  interfaces  which  enable 
you  to  do  optimisation  quickly 
and  without  fuss.  ProJ  peg  has 
a  d  u  al  -i  m  age  p  ra/i  ew  wi  n  d  o  w 
with  livefilesize,  compression 
rati  o  and  down  I  oad  ti  me  i  nfo 
and  supports progressive(the 
imagedisplaysat  progressively 
higher  resolution  asit 
down  I  oads  i  n  the  browser 
window)  and  baseline 
encoding. 

PhotoG IF  also  provides 
comparativepreviews,  good 
paletteediting  and  control 
features  and  an  edgetool  for 
cleaning  up  anti-aliased  edges 
on  transparent  gifs. 

Colorsafeisa  Photoshop 
plug-in  that  allows  you  to 
create  hybrid  browser-safe 


\9-  Lp  -r-  Mfl  «  —  mm-  l» 


colours  from  a  combination  of 
two  existing  colours  in  the 
browser  palette,  thus 
expandingtherangeof 
websafe  col  ours.  A  program 
called  Ditherboxmadesuch 
an  excellent  job  of  this 
techniquethat  it  was  bought 
by  Adobe  and  incorporated 
into  ImageReady. 

At  www.spinwave.co 
you'll  find  HVSColorGIF  2.0, 
a  Photoshop  plug-in  gif 
optimiser.lt  includes 
programmablepre-sdts,  live 
previ  ews  and  agif  animator. 
Other  spinwaveproducts 
includeJPEG  Cruncher,  GIF 
C ru ncher  and  0  pti Verter  -  a 
scriptablecommand-linebatch 
converter  andoptimiserfor 
morethan  50fileformats 
including  eps,  tiff,  gif,  jpeg  and 
hvs  animator.  All  areavailable 
asfreetrial  downloads,  or  you 
can  crunch  online. 

At  www.mi 

com/alchemy/gifcon.html, 

you'll  find  Alchemy'sGif 
Construction  Set  Pro  2,  afully 
featured  sharewareapplication 
for  producing  animated  gifs 
and  optimisingfiles.  It'sa 
4MB  download  and  the 
registration  feeis$20.  It  has  an 
animation  wizard  and  banner 
generator,  transition  effects, 


1/1/  ebgraphics  0  ptimizer  4.2 


Bannershop  G  if  A  nimator4.0 


and  a SuperCompressor  Gif 
optimiseraswell  as  integrated 
scri pti n g  capabi I i ti es.  You  can 
convert  gif  animationstoavi 
format  and  it  also  supports  the 
new  so-called  animated  png 
format  mng. 

Gif  Master  1.4 ( 
nev.hyp  ermart.net/GM  aster/ 

)  isasuiteof 

applicationscomprising  Gif 
Viewer,  G  if  0  pti  mizer,  G  if 
Explorer,  G  if  Comment  and 
Gif  Convert. TheO ptimizer 
can  work  on  an  entirefolder  of 
single-frameor  animated  gifs. 
As  well  as  gif,  jpg,  and  pngfile 
formats  aresupported.  G I F- 
Expl orer  i s  a  gif  fi  le  browser 
that  supports  animations, 
returns  paletteand  header 
information,  and  provides 
somebasic  editing  techniques. 
Version  1.4  is  a  beta  with  a 
registration  fee 
of  $35. 

WebgraphicsO  ptimizer 
4.2softwareautomatically 
optimisesimagesforyou  using 
its  intellioptimizefeature, 
which  analyses  your  images 
and  decidesoptimal  settings 
for  you  (www. web  ). 

So  even  if  you  haven't  read  the 
pageon  compression  there's 
no  excuse  not  to  producesmall 
perfectlyformed  gifs. 

I  f  you  want  to  takea  more 
hands-on  approach,  up  to  five 
variations  can  becompared 
whileyou  changethefile 
format,  compression  ratio, 
colour  depth,  ditheri ng  and 
colour  palettein  real  time. 
Optimizer  reads24file 
formats  and  writes  16, 


includinggif, jpeg,  png, 
Photoshop  3  and  tiff.  It  also 
h  as  a  wi  d e  ran  ge  of  effects 
filters,  colour  manipulation 
functionsand  TWAIN 
support  for  scanner  input, 
all  presented  in  a  slick 
professional  interface.The 
professional  version  also 
provides  batch  optimisation 
features. 

Newly  released  Bannershop 
Gif  Animator  4.0  hasa  built- 
in  imageeditorwith  drawing, 
retouching  and  text  tools 
for  creating  single-frame 
and  animated  gifs 

3c0.com/. 

It  has  an  optimisation 
wizard  and  uses  plug-in 
extensionsto  providea  range 
of  animation  and  effects  tools. 
Fly, fade,  motion  blur, zoom, 
stretch  and  peek  extensions  are 
included.  You  can  download  a 
limited  timedemo,  or  own  it 
forever,  astheysayonthe 
D  isney  video  commercials, 
for  $39. 

Best  of  the  rest 

http :// www.agentu  r-si  mon . 
d^pedit/ 

PEdit  0.8:  Simon  Bertram's 
PEdit  isasimple,  but  powerful 
manual  paletteeditor  plug-in. 

www.jpg.com 

Pegasus  i  magi  ng:  J  peg  Wizard 
and  PicPress. 

http://www.ri  softsystems. 
com/ pal  exp. asp 

Rl  Soft  Systems:  Palette 
Express  Paletteeditor. 

http ://  www.crayo  n  sof  t  .co  m/ 

Crayon  Software:  M  agic 
Vi  ewer  vl.2  sh  areware  batch 
converter  and  optimiser. 

http://www.coffeecup.com/ 

Coffeecup  Software 
Shareware  G  if  Animator,  I  mage 
M  apper  and  Button  Factory. 

http://studl.tuwien.ac.at/ 

~e8925005/ 

www  G  if  An  i  mator  vl.l  (that's 
not  a  URL  bytheway) 
SharewareG  if  ani  mator  with 
I  o  ts  of  effects  andtransitions. 

http://www.spg-net.com/ 

productl.html 

SPG  Webtools4.0pro 
Expansivesuiteof  plug-ins 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


)asc  Animation  Shop  2.0 


THIS  ISA  COMPONENT  of  Paint 
Shop  Pro  6.0  and  you  can  download  a 
30-day  trail  from  www.jasc.com. 

Version  1.02,  which  accompanied  Paint 
Shop  Pro  up  to  version  5.01,  was  a  basic 
application  for  stitching  together  gif 
animations.  It  had  a  clean  filmstrip 
interface  and  a  few  transition  effects, 
but  little  else.  Version  2.0  adds  new 
banner  and  optimisation  wizards, 
editing  tools,  support  for  opening  and 
saving  Autodesk  flc  and  fli  plus  avi  file 
formats,  more  and  better  transitions 
and  effects  as  well  as  enhanced 
integration  with  Paint  Shop  Pro. 

That  said,  working  from  scratch  in 
Animation  Shop  is  not  recommended. 

Its  level  of  functionality  would  have  been 
considered  primitive  a  decade  ago. 

There  is  a  limited  range  of  drawing 
toolsfor  producing  simpleshapes 
and  lines,  a  paintbrush,  fill  bucket, 
and  eraser  text  tool. 

All  of  these  work  in  the 
conventional  destructive  pixel 
modeof  old  -  anything  you 
produce  with  them  is  instant  bits 
and  can't  be  moved  or  otherwise 
edited  (other  than  filled  with  a 
different  co  lour  from  the  bucket). 

If  your  text  ends  up  not  quite  in  the 
right  place,  orthewrong  sizeor 
colour  (there's  no  preview  to  help 
you  judgethis)  you  hit  undo  and  start 
over.  In  the  absence  of  layers,  or  any 
kind  of  selection  tools,  this  is  a  big 
obstacleto  anykind  of  productive  work. 

Were  Animation  Shop  a  standalone 
application,  that's  all  you'd  need  to 
know,  but  tightened  integration  with 
PaintShop  Pro  makes  it  less  of  an  issue. 
You  can  drag  layered  images  from  Paint 
Shop  Pro  into  Animation  Shop  where 
each  layer  will  appear  in  its  own  frame. 

You  can  also  create  new  frames  in 
Paint  Shop  Pro  and  drag  to  replace,  or 
insert  in  an  open  Animation  Shop  file. 
Working  in  the  opposite  direction, 
animations  can  be  exported  to  Paint 
Shop  Pro,  edited,  then  updated  back  to 
Animation  Shop. 

Transitions  have  a  new  preview 
dialog  boxthat  displays  the  start  and 
end  frames  with  a  big  preview  in  the 
middle.  Thereare24  available 
transitions  including  all  the  usual 
suspects  -  blinds,  chequer  wipe,  dissolve, 
fade-  and  a  few  more  interesting 
candidates  such  as  spin  and  twist. 

All  thetransitions  are  customisable 
to  a  degree  and  you  can  set  the  length 
and  frame  rate  with  sliders.  Image 
effects  work  in  a  similarfashion  and 
include  motion  blur,  shakycam,  spiral, 
underwater  and  wave.  These  can  be  run 
in  reverse  direction,  which  means  you 
can  usethem  to  bring  text  or  images  into 
sharp  focus  from  a  blurry,  shaky,  or 
waterybeginning. 


Text  effects  combine  a  text  input 
dialog  boxwith  an  effects engineso  you 
can  generate  woozy  text  in  one  step.  As 
with  all  of  these  things,  somearemore 
useful  than  others,  depending  on  your 
personal  preferences.  M  arquee  provides 
quick-scrolling  bannertext,  whilewheel, 
flag  and  backlight  are  also  worth  a  look. 

Theanimation  wizard  has  changed 
little,  if  at  all  from  version  1.0  and  is 
basically  little  more  than  a  sequenceof 
steps  for  importing  several  files  into  an 
animated  file.  Given  that  you  can  now 
do  this  moreeasilyfrom  a  layered  Paint 
Shop  Pro  file,  it's  hard  to  imagine 
anyoneusing  itotherthan  to  import 
files  from  another  source  and 
standardise framesize.  You  can  set  an 
arbitrary  frame  size  or  opt  to 
standardised  thefirst  imageand  the 
wizard  scales  each  image  as  required. 
Other  than  selecting  the  frame  rate  and 
a  couple  of  other  gif  parameters  and 
ordering  the  images,  that's  about  it. 

The  banner  wizard  has  little  more  to 
offer.  You  can  select  a  background  colour 
or  image,  choose  from  a  selection  of 
standard  template  sizes,  set  frame  rate 
and  looping  options,  enter  text  and 
specify  a  transition.  The  big  drawback 
here  isthat  you  don't  get  a  really  good 
look  at  the  text  until  you  get  to  thefinal 
panel,  inevitably  it's  the  wrong  size  so  you 
have  to  backtrack,  amend  it  then  take 
another  look,  but  this  isa  minorquibble. 

Theoptimisation  wizard  can  beused 


A  bove:  A  dding  transition  effects  is  easy 
and  A  nimation  Shop  has  a  good  selection 
L  eft:  T he  wizard  has  no  visual  feedback 
so  it's  pot  luck  with  settings  sliders 

on  two  levels.  Thesimplewayisto  drag 
thesliderthat  appearson  thefirst  panel 
to  oneof  four  positions  that  rangefrom 
low  quality  at  the  bottom  to  best  quality 
at  the  top.  A  status  panel  to  the  right 
tells  you  what  settings  will  beapplied. 

The  second  option  is  to  press  the 
customise  button  that  gives  you  control 
over  the  individual  settings  via  three 
tabbed  panelsforcolour depth, 
optimisation  parameters  and 
transparency  settings. 

You  can  specify  the  bit  depth  from  a 
pulldown  menu,  but  at  anything  less 
than  256  colours  it  isn't  possibleto 
choose  a  browser  palette,  although  you 
can  select  custom  palette  and  then 
select  a  saved  browser  palette. 

Animation  Shop  isa  basic  gif 
animation  application  with  good 
transitions  and  effects.  In  combination 
with  Paint  Shop  Pro  you  havea  more 
powerful  and  versatile  solution  that,  for 
the  price,  offers  good  value  at  this  level. 


DETAILS 

★★★★ 

PRICE  £93.94  (£79.95  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Digital  Workshop  01295  258335 
www.jasc.com 

SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium 
processor,  Windows  95/98/ NT4, 32M  B  of 
RAM,  12M  B  of  disk  space 
PROS  Transitions  and  effects;  integration 
with  PaintShop  Pro 

CONS  Limited  toolset;  lacklustre  wizards 
OVERALL  Whilenotstunning,  Animation 
Shop  2  isa  good  value  basic  animation  package 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION  >  > 


Macromedia  Fireworks  3 


LIKE  ADOBE,  MACROMEDIA  wants 
to  integrate  its  products  so  that  you  can 
get  everything  you  need  without  having 
to  venture  outside  its  product  suite.  You 
can  buy  Fireworks  3  with  Macromedia's 
web  authoring  application  Dream¬ 
weaver,  or  as  a  standalone  product. 

Because  M  acromedia  has  no 
mainstream  image-editing  product  with 
which  to  integrate  Fireworks  (unless  you 
count  Freehand)  it  needs  to  provide 
everything  you  might  require  to  produce 
stunning  web  graphics.  Although  it  lacks 
manyof  thetoolsyou'd  expect  to  find  in 
an  image  editor,  it  is  nonetheless  a  very 
self-contained  application. 

It  provides  all  you  need  to 
produce  optimised  graphics, 
buttons,  navbars,  rollovers, 
animated  gifs  and  other  web 
graphics.  It  offers  tighter 
integration  with  Dreamweaver, 
greatly  improved  previewing,  and  a 
history  panel  that  can  be  used  as  a 
sort  of  mini  script  player. 

M  acromedia  has  hedged  its 
bets,  or  as  it  would  see  it, 
broadened  Fireworks'  appeal,  by 
making  it  Photoshop-friendly.  You 
can  import  psd  files  with  layers 
intact  and  text  layers  editable. 
Photoshop  plug-ins,  which  appearon 
theXtrasmenu,  can  beapplied  aslive 
effects,  so  the  object  to  which  they  apply 
remains  editable  in  the  Fireworks  file. 

The  Fireworks  interface  is  clearly 
designed  to  appeal  to  Photoshop  users. 
Thecentral  editing  window  istabbed  to 
provide  original,  preview,  two  and  four- 
up  optimised  views.  A  profusion  of 
complicated  looking  palettes  down  the 
right-hand  side  of  the  screen  looksa 
little  intimidating,  but  once  you  get  to 
grips  with  Fireworks'  object-based 
approach  they  provide  the  most  direct 
means  of  defining  object  attributes. 

Like  Flash,  Fireworks  makes  use  of 
symbols  to  short-circuit  the  production 
process  for  repeating  objects. 

Eventually,  everything  is  rendered  into 
bitmaps,  HTML  and  JavaScript,  so  this 
doesn't  help  to  reduce  file  sizes,  but  it 
does  cut  out  a  lot  of  the  repetitive  work. 

The  new  button  editor  is  where  you 
create  simple  two-state  buttons  and 
morecomplexnavbars,  including  down 
and  over  while  down  states.  For  more 
advanced  rollovers,  including  what 
Fireworks  calls  disjoint  rollovers  -  where 
the  pointer  over  one  graphic  causes 
another  graphic  to  change-  you  need  to 
attach  JavaScript  'behaviours'  to  objects 
using  the  Behaviours  inspector. 

Animation  in  Fireworks  is  frame- 
based,  so  if  you  want  to  create  a  two- 
state  button  frameone would  contain 
the  up  state  and  frame  two  the 
mouseover  state.  To  attach  a  behaviour 
to  an  image  slice  you  select  the  event 


:  »-  -■-*  r  ■  ■  -;i  1  ■  ■ 

i  ;  EE  2  "  ■ 

..J-  ta-l- - 


and  choose  from  the  available 
JavaScripts.  Swap  image,  for  example, 
changes  the  contents  of  a  specified  slice 
with  another  frame  under  the  same  slice 
and  Swap  Image  Restore  brings  you 
back  to  the  default  frame.  Thetwo 
behaviours  are  combined  to  providea 
simple  rollover  behaviour  that  uses 
frames  one  and  two  of  the  selected  slice. 

Gif  animation  uses  the  same  frame- 
based  approach.  Thecombination  of 
frames  and  layers  makes  deciding  what 
will  appearand  when  less  complicated. 
You  can  share  a  layer  so  that  its  contents 
appear  in  every  frame  and  distribute 
multiple  selections  to  separate  frames 
for  sequential  display. 

Rolloversand  gif  animations  can  be 
previewed  from  within  Fireworks,  so  you 
don't  have  to  fire  up  a  browser  every  five 
minutes  to  check  the  results.  Asa  means 
of  checking  everything  isfunctioning, 
this  is  convenient,  but  when  combined 
with  Fireworks'  optimisation  controls 
it'san  absolutegodsend. 

Again,  it's  impossible  not  to  draw 
comparisons  with  Photoshop,  which 
Fireworks'  0  ptimize  palette  resembles 
very  much.  The  palette  provides  the  kind 
of  pre-sets  you  would  expect  -  jpeg  at 
various  compression  settings  and  gif 
using  a  variety  of  palette  and  dither 
options- there's  even  a  lossy  gif  option, 
just  like  Photoshop. 

Byselecting  an  individual  slice  you 
can  specifyoptimisation  settings  for  it 
alone,  regardless  of  the  general  setting 
for  the  rest  of  the  image  and  in  this  way 
you  can  go  through  the  image,  piece 


A  bove:  C  reating  disjoint  rollovers  - 
mouseover  on  the  gifts  button  changes  the 
panel  to  its  right 

L  eft:  A  nd  you  can  preview  the  rollovers  in 
situ-  no  need  to  fire  up  the  browser 

by  piece,  selecting  the  optimal  settings. 

Likewise  with  animated  gifs  you  can 
mess  about  with  theoptimisation 
settings  while  previewing  the  animation. 

An  export  wizard  automates  the 
optimisation  process  to  a  degree,  and 
providesan  option  to  specifythefilesize, 
useful  now  so  manysiteshavefilesize 
restrictions  on  banner  ads,  though  you 
may  prefer  to  do  your  own  tweaking. 

Fireworks'  combination  of  bitmap 
and  vector  features,  JavaScript  routines, 
animation  and  optimisation  tools  makes 
a  compelling  combination  for  designers 
who  want  to  pack  graphics  with  HTML 
action  whileatthesametimesqueezing 
files  until  they  squeek.  It's  not  as  simple 
to  use  as  ImageReady,  so  not  ideal  for 
quickfire  bits  and  pieces,  but  well  suited 
to  more  demanding  projects  that 
require  lots  of  graphics  with  ready  to  run 
JavaScript  and  HTM  Lfunctions  built  in. 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £163  (£139  exVAT)  £299 
Fireworks/ Dreamweaver  3  Studio 
CONTACT  Computers  Unlimited 
020  8358  5857  www.macromedia.com 
SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium 
120  (III  recommended)  Windows95/98/NT4, 
64M  B  of  RAM ,  60M  B  of  disk  space,  CD-ROM 
PROS  Creative  tools  and  web  functionality 
perfectly  integrated 
CONS  Steep  learning  curve 
OVERALL  Fireworks  is  the  only  choice  for 
dedicated  web  designers 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION  >  > 


Ulead  Gif  Animator  4 


THERE'S  SOMETHING  about  U lead's 
Gif  Animator  4  that  makes  your  heart 
sink.  The  grey  interface  has  no  life  and 
certainly  doesn't  entice  you  to  delve  into 
the  software  further  to  produce  moving 
graphics  for  websites. 

Likemanyanimation  programs,  Gif 
Animator  works  on  the  assumption  that 
you  will  create  the  frames  of  an  animation 
in  an  image-editing  application.  The 
grandlytitled  'animation  wizard'  isa 
dialog  boxthatyou  use  to  browse  for  and 
arrange  in  order  individual  frames.  You 
can  also  opt  for  dithering  and  set  the 
frame  rate. 

Ourtest  animation,  consisting  of  five 
sequentially  numbered  tif  files  came  in 
order  5, 2, 3, 4,1.  Although  you  can  drag 
and  drop  to  changethe  order,  the 
wizard  dialog  boxisn't  wide 
enough  to  view  thefilename,  only 
the  first  section  of  the  path  so, 
unfortunately,  you  can't  tell  which 
file  is  which. 

Thetabbed  editing  window 
provides  fourfunctions:  compose, 
edit,  optimise  and  preview.  It's 
surrounded  byan  attributetoolbar 
atthetop,  a  palette  toolbar  at  the 
bottom,  a  layer  pane  on  the  left 
and  a  toolbar  that  appears  on  the 
right  when  you  select  the  editing 
tab  on  the  workspace  window. 

Other  options  are  compose, 
optimise  and  preview. 

Thecompose section  doesn't 
appear  to  serve  any  function,  so  you 
may  as  well  click  on  the  Edit  tab.  This 
provides  access  to  the  editing  toolbar 
that  has  a  few  basic  image-editing  tools 
likecrop,  rotate,  fill  and  erase.  In 
addition,  therearezoom  buttons,  an 
onion  skin  button  that  displays  the 
previous  frame  underneath  the  current 
one,  and  a  magic  wand. 

Additional  image-editing  functions 
can  be  accessed  from  the  menu  bar, 
available  in  anyof  theediting  modes. 

If  you  buy  Gif  Animator  as  part  of 
theWebRazor  2.0  suite  you  get  a 
bonus  set  of  video  transition  and 
filter  effects. 

The  layer  pane  displays  each  frame 
either  in  list,  thumbnail,  or  filmstrip 
format.  W  hichever  format  you're  in  you 
can't  drag  and  drop  the  layers  to 
rearrange  them,  you  have  to  go  to  the 
layer  menu  and  select  move  layer  up,  or 
down  (there  is,  though,  a  keyboard 
shortcut  and  a  toolbar  button). 

U  nfortunatelyyou  will  be  doing  a  lot  of 
this  because  Animator  is  unableto  import 
files  in  thecorrect  order. 

The  layer  menu  is  also  the  route  to 
a  whole  bunch  of  effects,  including 
video  transitions,  a  rotating  cube 
animation,  a  banner  text  applet, 
scrolling,  and  something  called  moving 
sprites.  There's  an  abundance  of  these 


-n  - *m\ — a 

-  r  d  ■  i  — 


it 


T he  optimise  panel  -  but  where  the  preview 
thumbnail  should  be  -  a  big  grey  area 


effects  and  features,  but  the  question  is 
do  you  want  them?  M  ostly,  they  exist 
because  they  are  easy  to  program, 
rather  than  for  any  aesthetic  or 
productive  reason. 

M  oving  sprites  is  a  sort  of  poor 
man's  tweening  that  applies  an  offset  to 
a  series  of  duplicated  frames  to  produce 
movement.  Colour  animation  creates 
new  frames  with  all  pixels  of  a  particular 
colour  changing  to  another  colour.  Have 
you  seen  those  delightful  banners  where 
the  background,  text  and  anything  else 
visible  cycles  through  every  luminous 
colour  perceptible  to  the  human  eye? 

0  ne  effect  that  is  worth  having  and 
produces  quicker  results  than  by  hand  is 
add  scrolling.  Thisallowsyou  to  scroll 
theframes  of  your  animation  (most 
likelya  banner)  into  and  out  of  the 
framefrom  anyside.  As  well  asthescroll 
direction  you  can  set  the  number  of 
frames  used  to  achieve  the  effect,  delay 
timeand  background  colour  and  a  small 
preview  window  shows  you  how  it  looks. 
Sadly,  there  doesn't  appear  to  be  a  way 
to  scroll  aframeout  while  the 
subsequent  framescrolls  in. 

Therearetwo  optionsfor  optimising 
animated  gifs.  A  three-step  wizard  takes 
you  through  palette  selection,  dithering 
and  removal  of  redundant  pixels, 
comments  etc,  then  gives  you  a  report 


Q  uickly  add  scrolling  to  your  banners  with 
C  if  A  nimator's  one  good  feature 

and  you  can  view  a  preview,  but  you 
can't  compare  it  with  the  original. 

Alternatively,  you  can  choose  from  a 
n  u  m  b  er  o  f  p  re-sets.  T  h  ere  a  re  t  wo 
pulldown  menus,  onefor  bit  depth  and 
another  that  gives  three  palette  options: 
optimise,  browser  safe,  and  user  defined. 
You  don't  get  the  report  until  you've 
pressed  the  Optimise  Now  button  and  if 
you  don't  likethe  results  you  have  to  undo 
and  start  again  with  different  settings. 

To  see  the  results  of  the  optimisation 
you  go  to  the  preview  pane  and  try  to 
guess  how  your  latest  effort  compares 
with  the  previous  effort,  ortheoriginal. 

Web  graphics  packages  have 
reached  a  stage  of  sophistication  where, 
to  have  something  to  offer,  they  need  to 
be  easy  to  use,  provide  powerful  editing 
features,  or  have  an  original  approach. 

Gif  Animator  4  is  none  of  these 
things.  It  provides  the  kind  of  features 
that  shareware  applications  have  been 
offering  for  years,  bound  up  with  a 
miscellaneous  collection  of  effects  and 
filters  of  little  practical  use. 


DETAILS 


★★ 

PRICE  £29.95  (£25.50  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Bit 01420 83811 
www.ulead.com 

SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium 
processor,  Windows95/98/NT4, 32M  B  of 
RAM,  16MB  of  disk  space 
PROS  Inexpensive; an  abundanceof moving 
sprites... 

CONS  ...but  do  you  need  them?  Poor 
interface 

OVERALL  There  are  better  options  available 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION  >  > 


Ulead  SmartSaver  Pro  3.0 


ULEAD  SMARTSAVER  PRO  3  neatly 
covers  the  four  core  areas  of  web 
graphics  production  -  image  slicing, 
JavaScript  rollovers,  image  maps  and 
optimisation.  It  can  be  run  asa 
standalone  application  or  Photoshop- 
compatible  plug-in  from  your  image 
editor.  You  can  download  a  free  15-day 
trial  version  from  www.ulead.com, 
alternatively  SmartSaver  2.0  is  available 
as  part  of  U  lead's  WebRazor  Pro  2.0 
suite,  which  also  includes  Gif  Animator4 
(see  previous  review),  Cool  3D  2.5  and 
Photo  Explorer  5.0,  but  you'll  need  to 
upgrade  to  version  3.0  of  SmartSaver  Pro. 

Utilitarian,  but  functional, 

SmartSaver's  tabbed  palette  approach 
lets  you  get  straight  down  to  business. 
Clicking  on  the  Function 
tab  abovetheEdit  window 
displays  the  properties 
panel,  colour  paletteand 
floating  panelsforthetask 
in  hand  and  activates  the 
tools  in  thetoolbar. 

Three  tools  are 
provided  for  slicing,  a  'slice 
evenly'  grid  -  enter  the 
number  of  rows  and 
columns  in  a  dialog  box- 
an  'add  sliced  line'  tool, 
and  a  slice  line  eraser.  The 
last  of  these  is  crucial  as 
the  first  two  tools  provide 
a  less  than  ideal  wayof 
dividing  up  theimage. 

The  slice  line  creates  a  _ 

horizontal  orvertical  line 
at  theexact  spot  on  which  you  click,  you 
can't  drag  to  place  the  line  more 
accurately,  though  you  can  edit  it 
afterwards.  Once  you  get  the  hang  of  it 
it's  easy  enough,  but  not  nearly  as 
intuitive  as  Photoshop's  sheer  and  it 
lacks  the  editing  features. 

M  oving  on  to  the 0  ptimizer,  the 
properties  panel  houses  three  tabbed 
palettes,  the  first  of  which  provides  all 
the  settings  and  pre-sets  for  file  format 
and  compression  settings.  First  you  pick 
yourfileformat  by  clicking  on  the  gif,  jpg 
or  png  button,  then  you  can  select  from 
a  list  of  pre-set  options  on  a  pulldown 
menu.  If  you  choosegif  oroneofthepng 
pre-sets  the  colour  palette  is  displayed. 

You  can  optimise  individual  slices, 
either  by  clicking  to  select  or  highlighting 
the  relevant  cell  intheframesand  cells 
panels,  but  there  doesn't  seem  to  be  a  way 
to  applythese settings  to  multipleslices. 

H  aving  selected  your  pre-set  you  can 
then  tweak  the  palette  to  try  and  skim 
bits  without  sacrificing  quality.  The  gif 
settings  give  you  the  choice  of  an 
optimised  palette  based  on  image  pixels, 
a  websafe  palette,  or  a  user-defined  one. 
The  degree  of  dither,  number  of  colours 
in  the  palette,  and  adherence  to  the 
websafe  palette  can  all  beset  by  sliders. 


TheO  ptimization  tab  -  plenty  of  control,  but  no  way  to 
optimise  multiple  cells 


In  practice  dither  will  beset  either  on  or 
off,  and  the  same  goes  for  the  websafe 
colours  -  you  either  use  them  or  you 
don't,  there's  no  halfway,  so  the 
provision  of  sliders  is  a  bit  daft. 

As  for  number  of  colours,  some 
indication  of  the  boundary  at  which  you 
losebits  would  be  helpful.  Reducing  the 
number  of  colours  from  256  down  to 
anything  above  128  isn't  going  to  make 
any  difference  to  filesize,  but  will  have 
an  impact  on  imagequality. 

You  can  give  portions  of  unsliced 
images  a  quality  boost  using  the 
emphasize  area  tab.  For  jpegs  you  use  a 
slider  to  set  a  higher  quality/ lower 
compression  setting,  with  gifs  you  can 
give  precedence  in  the  palette  to  colours 
that  fall  within  the  selected  area. 

On  thefaceof  it,  facilities  for 
creating  JavaScript  rollovers  are  good, 
but  let  down  by  the  need  to  reference 
external  files  for  additional  states.  In 
Fireworks  and  ImageReadyyou  make 
use  of  layers  to  create  alternate  button 
states,  it's  easy  to  see  what  you're  doing, 
keep  elements  in  register  and  judge  the 
impact  of  changing  elements. 

SmartSaver  provides  all  the  right 
controls  and  even  lets  you  assign  audio 
to  a  rollover,  but  when  it  comes  to 


Tags  on  JavaScript  for  rollovers,  but  the 
real  work  needs  to  be  done  elsewhere 

displaying  the  rollover  graphic  you  have 
to  specify  an  existing  file.  This  means 
you  really  create  the  rollover  in  an 
image-editing  application,  all 
SmartSaver  does  is  provide  a  convenient 
front  end  for  adding  theJavaScript. 

Thetoolbar  at  thetop  of  thescreen 
adds  some  nice  convenience  features. 
Show  project  info  displays  a  dialog  box 
with  details  of  each  cell's  size  and  type 
together  with  total  download  timeon  a 
specified  bandwidth  link.  Full-screen 
preview  mode  shows  your  graphic 
against  a  specified  colour  background 
and  a  buttonbar  provides  256-colour 
preview,  and  a  M  ac  preview  (graphics 
display  lighter  on  M  acs).  Furthermore, 
you  can  drag  and  drop  your  graphic  for 
absolute  positioning  on  theHTM  L  page. 

If  your  primary  requirement  isfor 
imageoptimisation  and  you  don't  want 
to  spend  a  fortnight  reading  manuals, 
SmartSaver  will  get  you  there  quickly 
and  with  minimal  effort,  while  providing 
plenty  of  control  if  it's  in  your  nature  to 
tweak.  If  you  want  to  createJavaScript 
rollovers  there  are  many  better  options. 


DETAILS 

★★★ 

PRICE  £29.95  (£25.50  exVAT) 

CONTACT  Bit 01420 83811 

www.ulead.com 

SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium 
processor,  Windows95/98/NT4, 32M  B  of 
RAM,  16MB  of  disk  space 
PROS  Easy  to  pick  up  and  get  going 
CONS  Not  a  good  choice  for  rollovers 
OVERALL  Not  much  to  shout  about  beyond 
theoptimisation 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Table  of 
features 

1 

SP* 

■'''C 

A  '+ 

%  i\  ,4 

Manufacturer 

Adobe 

Anark 

Beatware 

Equilibrium 

Fluffy  Clouds 

Product 

Image  Ready 

Emotion  3D 

e-Picture  Pro 

DeBabelizer  4.5 

Ignite  2.0 

Price  inc  VAT  (ex  VAT) 

P'shop  £468.83  (£399) 

$24.95 

$179 

£328.88  (£279.99) 

£99.88  (£85) 

Features 

Image  slicing 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Image  maps 

✓ 

X 

X 

X 

X 

JavaScript  rollovers 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

X 

Gif  animation 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Tweening 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

X 

X 

Colour  table  editing 

✓ 

X 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

Hex  colour  values 

✓ 

X 

X 

X 

✓ 

Comparison  preview 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

256  colour  preview 

✓ 

X 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

Size/ download  time  display 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Batch  processing 

✓  (in  Photoshop) 

X 

X 

✓ 

X 

Scripting 

✓ 

X 

X 

✓ 

X 

Auto  banner  creation 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

Gif  optimisation 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Jpeg  export 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Png  export 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

HTML  export 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Notes 

15-day  full  version  trial 

30-day  full  version  trial 

Table  of 
features 

_ _ ^ 

* 

Manufacturer 

Jasc 

Macromedia 

Ulead 

Ulead 

Product 

Animation  Shop  2.0 

Fireworks 

Gif  Animator  4 

SmartSaver  Pro  3 

Price  inc  VAT  (ex  VAT) 

£93.94  (£79.95) 

£163  (£139)  (£299  Fireworks 

£29.95 

£29.95 

/Dreamweaver  3  Studio) 

Features 

Image  slicing 

X 

✓ 

x/x 

✓ 

Imagemaps 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

JavaScript  rollovers 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Gif  animation 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Tweening 

X 

✓ 

X 

X 

Colour  table  editing 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Hex  colour  values 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Comparison  preview 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

256-colour  preview 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Size/ download  time  display 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Batch  processing 

X 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Scripting 

X 

✓ 

X 

X 

Auto  banner  creation 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

X 

Gif  optimisation 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Jpeg  export 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

Png  export 

X 

✓ 

X 

✓ 

HTML  export 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

✓ 

Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000  • 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION  >  > 


Editor's  Choice 


There's  a  lot  of  talk  about  how 
rapidlytheweb  is  developing, 
how  increased  bandwidth  and 
convergence  is  pushing  the  drive  for  new 
kinds  of  rich  visual  content. 

Despite  this,  many  web  graphic  tools 
are  focused  on  producing  content  in  a 
format  that  owes  more  to  the  last  century 
than  thisoneand  will  soon,  hopefully,  be 
obsolete,  namely  the  gif,  both  in  its 
single-frame  and  animated  format. 

U lead's SmartSaver  Pro  and  Gif 
Animator,  Jasc  Animation  Shop  2,  and  to 
a  lesser  extent  Ignite  and  DeBabelizer,  all 
offer  little  in  addition  to  file  optimisation 
and  basic  frame  animation  tools. 

So  what  should  you  be  looking  for  in 
a  web  graphics  application  that  will  still 
be  in  the  running  when  everyone  has  a 
truecolour  display  and  an  ADSL 
connection,  and  when  web  banners  rival 
TV  commercials  in  terms  of  sophistica¬ 
tion  of  content  and  leave  them  standing 
where  interactivity  is  concerned? 

First,  it  must  integrate  seamlessly 
with  the  application  being  used  for 
Wysiwyg  production  of  web  pages  and 
sites.  Integration  with  other  graphics 
applications  providing  both  vector  and 
raster-based  images  and  the  ability  to 
import  common  vector  and  raster  file 
types  also  matters.  Web  graphics 
production  isonlyonepart  of  the 
workflow  and  it  has  to  fit  as  seamlessly 
as  possible  with  all  the  others. 

It  must  beableto  exporta  wide 
range  of  formats  and,  of  course,  it 
must  provide  support  for  the  web 
technologies  that  improve  performance 
and  enhance  interactivity. 


M  acromedia's  Fireworks  is  streets  ahead 
of  other  web  animation  software 


The  winners 

The  application  that  fully  meets  all  these 
criteria  is  M  acromedia  Fireworks  3,  which 
wi ns  o u r  Editor's  C  hoice  a wa rd .  Fi rewo rks 
is  about  much  more  than  optimisation 
and  animation.  Its  drawing  tools  combine 
vector  and  bitmap  approaches  in  an 
object-based  environment  that  provides  a 
high  level  of  editing  control. 

It  happilyopens  Photoshop, 

Freehand,  Illustrator  and  CorelD raw  files 
with  layers  intact  and  with  drag-and-drop 
support  for  all  of  these  plus  M  icrosoft 
Office97  onwards,  IE  and  Netscape3 
onwards  and  Flash  3  onwards.  Fireworks' 
nativefileformatispng. 

It  hasa  broad  rangeof  colour 
options  including  accessible  palette 
optimisation  and  editing  as  well  as 
transparency,  anti-aliasing  and  halo 
removal  tools  and  has  the  kind  of 
compositing  and  masking  tools  usually 
onlyfound  in  high-end  image  editors. 

Fireworks' JavaScript  and  HTM  L 
features  may  take  a  little  more  effort  to 
get  used  to  than  some  of  the  other 
packages  featured,  but  time  spent  here 
will  be  amply  repaid  later.  There  is  an 
unprecedented  degree  of  control  over  the 
appearance  and  behaviour  of  graphic 
elements  plus  many  export  options. 

It  takes  a  while  to  get  your  head 
around  Fireworks'  method  for  creating 
rollovers,  which  requires  juggling  frames, 
layers,  objects  and  behaviours,  but  once 
you  get  the  hang  of  it  you  wonder  if  there 
could  be  any  better  way  to  do  it  anyway. 
The  new  Set  N  av  Bar  Image  and  button 
editor  further  simplifies  the  creation  of 
common  page  components. 


e-Picture's  tweening  features  and 
compression  performance  impressed  us 


It's  not  too  difficult  to  imagine  a 
future  where  Fireworks,  Flash  and 
Dreamweaver  playthesamedominant 
role  in  web  production  that  Q  uark 
Xpress  has  established  in  the  print  world. 
Certainlyon  the  basis  of  what  it  currently 
has  to  offer,  there's  nothing  to  touch  it. 

The  f  i  rst  of  o  u  r  H  ighly  C  ommended 
awards  goes  to  Beatware's  e-Picture  Pro.  It 
deserves  this  on  the  basis  of  its  tweened 
animation  features  alone.  Add  to  this  a 
well-organised  interface  (albeit  one  with 
scopefor  improvement),  excellent 
compression  performance  and  a  raft  of 
export  formats  including  gif,  png  and 
Flash  and  you  have  what  adds  up  to  oneof 
the  best  ways  to  produce  web  animations 
that  doesn't  involve  pyrotechnics. 

While  e-Picture  falls  some  way  short 
of  Fireworks  in  terms  of  features,  tools 
and  overall  scope,  it  does,  however, 
offer  unsurpassed  animation  controls 
that  are  relatively  easy  to  use.  It  is  also 
particularly  strong  in  its  support  for  3D 
graphics  and  text  handling. 

Anark's  Emotion  3D  takes  our  second 
Highly  Commended  award  on  the 
groundsthat,  byanydefinition  it'sjusta 
great  piece  of  software.  Download  it, 
play  with  for  10  minutes  and  if  you  don't 
think  it's  for  you,  at  least  it  will  have  given 
you  something  to  smileabout. 

You  just  can't  help  but  warm  to  the 
sight  of  stupid  looking  cartoon 
characters  bouncing  about  the  place  in  a 
very  human  sort  of  a  way.  Emotion  is  one 
of  those  products  that  quickly  attracts  a 
crowd  around  your  monitor,  so,  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  it  enhances  your 
popularity  it'swell  worth  a  look. 


H  ave  a  play  with  E motion  3D's  cartoon 
characters  and  you'll  be  hooked 


fi  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


IMAGE  OPTIMISATION  >  > 


Shareware  and  pi  ug-i  ns 


Creatingweb  graphicson  a 
budget  couldn't  be  easier. 
There'sverylittleworth  having 
that'sabsolutelyfree;but 
there'san  abundanceof  cheap 
plug-ins,  sh  areware  an  d  d  em  o 
software  to  tryout. 

If  you  haveafull  copyof 
Photoshop  5.5  you  probably 
won't  want  to  bother  with 
them  as  most  of  what  they 
offer  is  included  inthelatest 
version  of  Photoshop,  or 
ImageReady  2.0. 

lf,ontheother 
hand,you'reworking 
with  an  older  version 
of  Photoshop,  or 
another  image-editing 
application  that  is 
plug-in-compatible, 
such  as  Paint  Shop  Pro 
or  Corel  PhotoPaint, 
these  shareware  plug- 
inscan  providemany 
ofthefunctionsof 
our  group  test 
applications  at  a 
fraction  ofthecost. 

Oneplacethatisa 
goldmineof  applicationsfor 
optimising  and  compressing 
web  graphics  is 

im.  It's  not 

strictly  speaking  shareware, 
rather  commercial 
applicationsthatyou  can 
download  in  demo  format. 
Someof  these  aresave 
disabled,  others  havelimited 
functionality,  for  example 
Supergif  cannot  batch 
process. 

All  theBoxtopsoft  products 
areavailablefor  Windows 
and  M  ac,  they  featu  resimple 
elegant  interfaces  which  enable 
you  to  do  optimisation  quickly 
and  without  fuss.  ProJ  peg  has 
a  d  u  al  -i  m  age  p  ra/i  ew  wi  n  d  o  w 
with  livefilesize,  compression 
rati  o  and  down  I  oad  ti  me  i  nfo 
and  supports progressive(the 
imagedisplaysat  progressively 
higher  resolution  asit 
down  I  oads  i  n  the  browser 
window)  and  baseline 
encoding. 

PhotoG IF  also  provides 
comparativepreviews,  good 
paletteediting  and  control 
features  and  an  edgetool  for 
cleaning  up  anti-aliased  edges 
on  transparent  gifs. 

Colorsafeisa  Photoshop 
plug-in  that  allows  you  to 
create  hybrid  browser-safe 


\9-  Lp  -r-  Mfl  «  —  mm-  l» 


colours  from  a  combination  of 
two  existing  colours  in  the 
browser  palette,  thus 
expandingtherangeof 
websafe  col  ours.  A  program 
called  Ditherboxmadesuch 
an  excellent  job  of  this 
techniquethat  it  was  bought 
by  Adobe  and  incorporated 
into  ImageReady. 

At  www.spinwave.co 
you'll  find  HVSColorGIF  2.0, 
a  Photoshop  plug-in  gif 
optimiser.lt  includes 
programmablepre-sdts,  live 
previ  ews  and  agif  animator. 
Other  spinwaveproducts 
includeJPEG  Cruncher,  GIF 
C ru ncher  and  0  pti Verter  -  a 
scriptablecommand-linebatch 
converter  andoptimiserfor 
morethan  50fileformats 
including  eps,  tiff,  gif,  jpeg  and 
hvs  animator.  All  areavailable 
asfreetrial  downloads,  or  you 
can  crunch  online. 

At  www.mi 

com/alchemy/gifcon.html, 

you'll  find  Alchemy'sGif 
Construction  Set  Pro  2,  afully 
featured  sharewareapplication 
for  producing  animated  gifs 
and  optimisingfiles.  It'sa 
4MB  download  and  the 
registration  feeis$20.  It  has  an 
animation  wizard  and  banner 
generator,  transition  effects, 


1/1/  ebgraphics  0  ptimizer  4.2 


Bannershop  G  if  A  nimator4.0 


and  a SuperCompressor  Gif 
optimiseraswell  as  integrated 
scri pti n g  capabi I i ti es.  You  can 
convert  gif  animationstoavi 
format  and  it  also  supports  the 
new  so-called  animated  png 
format  mng. 

Gif  Master  1.4 ( 
nev.hyp  ermart.net/GM  aster/ 

)  isasuiteof 

applicationscomprising  Gif 
Viewer,  G  if  0  pti  mizer,  G  if 
Explorer,  G  if  Comment  and 
Gif  Convert. TheO ptimizer 
can  work  on  an  entirefolder  of 
single-frameor  animated  gifs. 
As  well  as  gif,  jpg,  and  pngfile 
formats  aresupported.  G I F- 
Expl orer  i s  a  gif  fi  le  browser 
that  supports  animations, 
returns  paletteand  header 
information,  and  provides 
somebasic  editing  techniques. 
Version  1.4  is  a  beta  with  a 
registration  fee 
of  $35. 

WebgraphicsO  ptimizer 
4.2softwareautomatically 
optimisesimagesforyou  using 
its  intellioptimizefeature, 
which  analyses  your  images 
and  decidesoptimal  settings 
for  you  (www. web  ). 

So  even  if  you  haven't  read  the 
pageon  compression  there's 
no  excuse  not  to  producesmall 
perfectlyformed  gifs. 

I  f  you  want  to  takea  more 
hands-on  approach,  up  to  five 
variations  can  becompared 
whileyou  changethefile 
format,  compression  ratio, 
colour  depth,  ditheri ng  and 
colour  palettein  real  time. 
Optimizer  reads24file 
formats  and  writes  16, 


includinggif, jpeg,  png, 
Photoshop  3  and  tiff.  It  also 
h  as  a  wi  d e  ran  ge  of  effects 
filters,  colour  manipulation 
functionsand  TWAIN 
support  for  scanner  input, 
all  presented  in  a  slick 
professional  interface.The 
professional  version  also 
provides  batch  optimisation 
features. 

Newly  released  Bannershop 
Gif  Animator  4.0  hasa  built- 
in  imageeditorwith  drawing, 
retouching  and  text  tools 
for  creating  single-frame 
and  animated  gifs 

3c0.com/. 

It  has  an  optimisation 
wizard  and  uses  plug-in 
extensionsto  providea  range 
of  animation  and  effects  tools. 
Fly, fade,  motion  blur, zoom, 
stretch  and  peek  extensions  are 
included.  You  can  download  a 
limited  timedemo,  or  own  it 
forever,  astheysayonthe 
D  isney  video  commercials, 
for  $39. 

Best  of  the  rest 

http :// www.agentu  r-si  mon . 
d^pedit/ 

PEdit  0.8:  Simon  Bertram's 
PEdit  isasimple,  but  powerful 
manual  paletteeditor  plug-in. 

www.jpg.com 

Pegasus  i  magi  ng:  J  peg  Wizard 
and  PicPress. 

http://www.ri  softsystems. 
com/ pal  exp. asp 

Rl  Soft  Systems:  Palette 
Express  Paletteeditor. 

http ://  www.crayo  n  sof  t  .co  m/ 

Crayon  Software:  M  agic 
Vi  ewer  vl.2  sh  areware  batch 
converter  and  optimiser. 

http://www.coffeecup.com/ 

Coffeecup  Software 
Shareware  G  if  Animator,  I  mage 
M  apper  and  Button  Factory. 

http://studl.tuwien.ac.at/ 

~e8925005/ 

www  G  if  An  i  mator  vl.l  (that's 
not  a  URL  bytheway) 
SharewareG  if  ani  mator  with 
I  o  ts  of  effects  andtransitions. 

http://www.spg-net.com/ 

productl.html 

SPG  Webtools4.0pro 
Expansivesuiteof  plug-ins 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Become  an  expert  with  our  essential,  in-depth  guide  to  all  things  PC 


.SsTwi^i 


r 


Welcome  to  this 
month’s  pcwexpert. 
Over  the  next  16 
pages  we  take  an 
in-depth  look  at  both 
CRT  and  LCD 
monitors. 

We  start  at  their 
origins  and  go  on  to 
their  inner  workings 
and  explain  how  you 


can  get  the  best 
results.  Read  on  to 
find  out  more  and 
become  a  PCW 
expert  on  monitors. 


Written  by  David  Fearon 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


pcwexpert 


HISTORY 


Bringing  monitors  into  focus 

Despite  being  around  since  the  19th  Century  the  CRT  faces  stiff  competition  from  a  technology  based  on  frozen  carrot  juice 


□  fthe300  million  orso  PCs 
inusearound  the  world 
today,  the  vast  majority  are 
connected  to  a  display 
technology  that  predates  the 
digital  computer  by  about  50 
years.  The  basic  technology  on 
which  these  displays  are  based, 
the  cathode  ray  tube  (C  RT) ,  was 
invented  in  the  19th  Century, 
when  the  closest  thing  to  a  d  igital 
computer  was  Charles  Babbage's 
notional  Analytical  Engine. 

The  man  credited  with 
developing  the  basic  technology 
that  would,  in  a  modified  form, 
make  its  way  into  practically  every 
household  in  the  western  world 
within  the  next  60  years,  was  a 
German  physicist  named  Karl 
Ferdinand  Braun. 

Cathode  ray  tubes  had  been 
around  fora  while,  but  in  1897 
Braun  invented  the  cathode  ray 
oscilloscope,  a  device  with  all  the 
basic  elements  of  a  modern 
picture  tube:  a  focused,  steerable 
electron  beam  with  a  fluorescent 
screen  that  could  be  used  to 
prod  uce  patterns.  The  cathode 
ray  oscilloscope  was  invented  to 
enable  plotting  of  time- variable 
voltage  and  currents  on  the 
screen,  and  oscilloscopes  are  still 
used  today  in  the  same  way  by 
electronic  engineers.  But  people 
started  to  realise  very  earlyon 
that  the  device  could  be  used  for 
more  than  plotting  single  lines 


and  producing  pretty  patterns. 
Just  a  decade  or  so  later,  over  in 
Russia,  Boris  Rosin  and  Vladimir 
Zworykin  used  what  was  then  still 
called  a  Braun  tube  to 
demonstrate  one  of  thefirst  ever 
television  systems. 

Butin  1889,  even  before 
Braun  had  developed  the 
cathode  ray  tube,  an  Austrian 
botanist  by  the  name  of  Reinitzer 
was  doing  what  botanists 
apparentlydid  inthosedays, 
namely  freezing  carrot  juice. 
Looking  at  the  structure  of  the 
material  as  it  thawed,  Reinitzer 
noticed  that  at  a  certain 
temperature,  rather  than  making 
thetransition  from  liquid  to  solid 
directly,  it  appeared  to  hover 
between  the  two.  The  juice  would 
flowlikea  liquid,  but  retain  some 
of  its  crystal  structure.  H  e  and 
German  physicist  Otto  Lehmann 
called  this  fourth  state  of  matter 
the  liquid-crystal  state. 

As  the  properties  of  liquid 
crystals  continued  to  be 
investigated,  it  was  discovered 
that  the  semi-crystalline  structure 
of  some  liquid  crystal 
compounds  could  be  influenced 
by  an  electric  field.  This  fact, 
combined  with  thefact  that  the 
orientation  of  the  crystals,  called 
the  director,  affected  the 
transmission  of  light,  meant  it 
was  only  a  matter  of  time  before 
someone  put  liquid  crystal 


to  useasadisplaydevice. 

In  the  event,  it  was  rather  a 
longtime.  Because  liquid  crystal 
is  less  suited  to  displaying  analog 
quantities  and  is  more 'digital'  in 
nature,  the  world  had  to  wait  for 
theinvention  of  the  silicon 
transistor  and  digital  electronics 
beforethefirst  viable  LCD 
(liquid-crystal  display)  was 


developed.  Thefirst  one  was  the 
offspring  of  the  scientists  at  the 
Radio  Corporation  of  America 
(RCA)  laboratories  in  1963.  This 
didn't  usetheprincipleof 
polarising  light  that  modern 
displays  use,  but  was  based  on  a 
principle  known  asthedynamic 
scattering  mode(DSM ).  Applying 
a  small  voltageto  thedisplay 


pcwexpert  timeline 


1889 

1897 

1910 

1963 

1963 

1968 

Austrian  botanist 

Friedrich  Reinitzer  is 
mucking  about  with  a 
carrot  and  discovers 
that  certain  types  of 
organic  matter  have  a 
fourth  state  between 
liquid  and  solid -the 
liquid-crystal  state. 

German  physicist  Karl 
Ferdinand  Braun 
develops  the  first 
cathode  ray 
oscilloscope,  the  basis 
of  modern  CRT 
displays. 

Russians  Boris  Rosing 
and  Vladimir  Zworykin 
show  a  crude  television 
system  at  the  Imperial 
Institute  of  Technology 
in  Moscow.  The  system 
uses  a  Braun  cathode 
ray  tube  as  its  display. 

Ivan  Sutherland’s 
Sketchpad  is  the  first 
interactive  computer 
graphics  system,  but 
because  of  the  vast  cost 
of  memory  it  is  a  vector 
rather  than  raster- 
based  system. 

The  Radio  Corporation 
of  America  (RCA) 
demonstrates  the  first 
crude  liquid-crystal 
display  (LCD),  based  on 
the  dynamic  scattering 
mode  of  operation. 

Sony  invents  the 

Trinitron  aperture-grille 
picture  tube,  a 
breakthrough  design 
that’s  flat  in  the  vertical 
direction  and  gives  very 
high  brightness,  but  at 
this  point  it  makes  its 
appearance  in 
televisions  only. 

•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


pcwexpert 


HISTORY 


made  the  display  elements  turn 
cloudy.  Unfortunately,  this 
displayproved  to  havea  limited 
lifetime  and  wasn't  especially 
clear. 

Thefirst  LCD  to  use  liquid 
crystals  in  the  same  manner  in 
which  they  are  used  today 
appeared  a  few  years  later  in 
1971.  This  was  thefamiliar 
displaythat  has  been  used  in 
digital  watches  and  calculators 
ever  since.  It  used  the  mode  of 
operation  wherebythetwisting  of 
the  liquid  crystal  under  a  voltage 
causes  light  to  deblocked  by  a 
polarising  filter.  This  is  called  the 
twisted-nematic  effect  and  all 
modern  LCDs,  whether  in 
watches  or  high-end  flat-panel 
displays,  work  on  this  principle. 

Themajorfactorthat 
influenced  the  development  of 
the  computer  monitor  was,  of 
course,  the  development  of 
computers  themselves.  After  all, 
there  was  no  point  in  developing 
a  display capableof  high- 
resolution  graphics  when  no 
computer  existed  to  use  it. 

Computers  migrated  from 
punch  cards  and  tape  in  the 
1960s,  and  that's  when  thefirst 
graphical  displays  were 
developed  specificallyfor 
computer  use.  Ivan  Sutherland's 
Sketchpad,  designed  in  1963,  is 
regarded  asoneofthefirst 
interactive  graphics  systems,  but 
like  most  computer  systems  up 
until  the  Seventies,  its  display  was 
vector-based.  TheCRT  display's 
electron  beam  was  steered 
directly  around  the  screen  to 
create  wireframe  objects,  rather 


than  using  the  modern  raster 
method  where  the  image  is  built 
up  linebyline,  inthemannerof  a 
television  image.  The  reason  for 
this  was  simple:  raster-based 
computer  displays  require  a 
memory  buffer  that  stores  the 
colour  of  each  pixel  in  the  image. 
When  memory  was  a  million 
dollars  a  kilobyte,  even  very  low- 
resolution  raster  displays  were 
completely  unfeasible. 

It's  difficult  to  pin  down  the 
first  computerto  use  the  modern 
system  of  raster-based  graphics, 
but  once  memory  became  cheap 
enough  to  produce  them,  the 
modern  monitor  market  began. 

I  n  the  U  K,  the  home  computer 
boom  of  the  late  Seventies  and 
early  Eighties  had  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  people  hooking  up 
their  new  ZX81s  to  their 
televisions.  But  image 
quality  suffered  as  a 
result  of  the 
computer 
having  to 
convert 
the  RGB 
image  buffer 
into  a  UHF 

television  signal.  Various 
companies  began  to 
produce 
monitors  with 
dedicated  RGB 
inputs  to  take  advantage  of  home 
micros  with  the  appropriate  RG  B 
outputs,  such  as  the  BBC  M  icro. 
One  of  the  best-known  and  most 
populardedicated  monitor 
ranges  of  the  1980s  in  the  U  K 
was  M  icro vitec's Cub,  made 
famous  by  its  useon  the  BBC's 


health  implications cameto  the 
fore,  and  it  wasn't  long  before 
'flicker-free'  monitors  with  refresh 
rates  of  72Hz  and  above  became 
available.  Flickering  screens 
weren '  1 1  h  e  p  ri  ma  ry  so  u  rce  o  f 
concern,  however:  the  idea  that 
low-frequency  EM  R  (electro¬ 
magnetic  radiation)  could  affect 
vulnerable  groups 
such  as  pregnant 
women  gave  rise 
to  the  M  PRII  and 
latterly  TCO  92 
standards. 

After  that,  and 
for  most  of  the 
Nineties,  monitor 
technology  remained 
fairly  static,  as  did 
prices.  In  1994  a  17in 
unit  was  a  luxury  and  a 
high-end  model  would 
set  you  back  £1,500.  It 
wasonlyin  late  1996 
and  early  1997  that  the 
new  threat  from  ever- 
decreasing  LCD  flat  panel 
prices  began  to  prod  the 
conventional  CRT 
manufacturers  into  action. 

In  1996,  an  liyama  Vision 
M  aster  17  shadow-mask  display 
cost  around  £550,  but  now,  just 
a  few  years  later,  the  latest  19in 
flat-screen  aperture-grille 
models,  with  vastly  better  image 
quality,  cost  close  to  half  that. 

Thethreatfrom  LCD  displays 
hasyetto  makean  impact:  CRT- 
based  displays  continue  to  give 
the  best  price-performance  ratio, 
with  a  high-end  21in  flat-screen 
CRT  costing  around  thesameas 
a  decent  15in  LCD  flat  panel. 


Computer  Programme  and  its 
ubiquity  in  schools. 

Driven  by  the  drops  in 
memory  prices,  the  resolution  of 
home  computers,  and  latterly 
PCs,  steadily  increased.  In  the 
early  1990s,  Windows3.1  and 
PCs  with  VGA  graphics  resulted 


Laptops  feature  LCD  displays  as  standard 


in  display  resolutions  of  640  x 
480,  then  800x600. 

With  the  advent  of  the 
Swedish  TCO  trade  union's 
interest  and  the  computer's  entry 
into  offices  around  the  world,  the 


1971 

1980s 

1990s 

1994 

1996/7 

1999 

Hoffman-La  Roche 
develops  the  first 
commercial  twisted- 
nematic  LCD  of  the  type 
later  used  for 
calculators  and  digital 
watches.  The  basic 
principle  is  the  same  as 
that  now  used  in  flat- 
panel  PC  displays. 

The  advent  of  mass- 

market  home 
computers  in  the  UK 
means  dedicated 
computer  monitors  like 
Microvitec’s  classic 

Cub  range  start  to 
replace  televisions  for 
home  computer  use. 

Windows  3.1  demands  a 

resolution  of  640  x 

480,  setting  the 
baseline  for  new 

monitors.  The  TCO  is 

formed  to  set  standards 
for  ergonomics  and 
emissions.  The  first 

‘flicker-free’  monitors 
begin  to  appear. 

Prices  for  decent 
monitors  are  still  high:  a 
good  quality  17in  unit 
costs  over  £1,000  and 
14in  displays  are  still 
the  norm  for  home  user 
and  office  systems. 

LCD  flat  panels  become 
viable  for  home  users, 
albeit  those  with  very 
deep  pockets.  This 
gives  CRT 

manufacturers  a  kick 
up  their  behinds  and 

CRT  prices  rapidly  start 
to  drop  while  quality 
improves. 

Sony  produces  the  FD 
Trinitron  tube  and 

Mitsubishi  releases  the 
rival  Diamondtron  NF, 
the  first  CRT-based 
displays  with  perfectly 
flat  screens,  initially  in 
19in  sizes.  A  flat-screen 

17in  monitor  now  costs 

as  little  as  £200. 

Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


pcwexpert 


TECHNOLOGY 


Shots  in  the  dark 

Here  we  take  a  detailed  look  at  the  inner  workings  and  refinements  that  have  kept  the  cathode-ray  tube  in  line  with  progress 


□  he  vast  majorityof  the 
world's  monitors  are  still 
based  on  thefundamental 
principle  that  physicists  like 
Braun  were  using  back  in  the 
19th  Century:  the  cathode  ray 
tube.  But  there's  a  world  of 
difference  between  that  basic 
device  and  the  phenomenally 
complex  piece  of  engineering 
that's  resulted  from  the  CRT's 
100-odd  years  of  development. 


Principles  of  the  CRT 

To  makea  basic  CRT  you  need 
four  major  parts:  an  evacuated 
glass  tube  into  which  you  put  an 
electron  gun,  a  deflection  yoke 
and  a  phosphor  coating  (see 
diagram  top  right).  The  gun 
produces  a  stream  of  electrons 
that  arefired  toward  the  screen. 

Electrons  can  be  influenced 
by  electromagnetic  fields,  so  the 
deflection  yoke,  which  is 
essentially  an  electromagnet,  can 
steer  the  beam  of  electrons  to  a 
particular  point  on  the  screen  as 
they  shoot  past.  Theelectron 
beam  itself  is  invisible,  hence  the 
phosphor  coating  on  the  rear  of 
the  screen.  When  theelectron 
beam  hits  the  phosphor,  energy  is 
released  and  a  point  of  light 
appears  where  the  beam 
is  directed. 

In  a  monitor  or  television,  the 
picture  is  built  up  by  splitting  an 
image  into  rows  of  lines,  known 
as  a  raster,  and  painting  the 
image  on  the  screen  by  using  the 
deflection  yoke  to  start  at  thetop 
of  thetube,  scan  the  beam  from 
left  to  right  and  vary  its  intensity 
to  produce thefirstlineof  pixels, 
then  zipping  the  beam  back  to 
the  start  of  the  next  row  a  little 
further  down,  painting  that  line, 
and  so  on. 

The  combined  effects  of 
human  persistence  of  vision  and 
thefact  that  the  phosphor 
continues  to  glow  after  the  beam 
has  moved  a  way  from  a 
particular  spot  means  that  if  this 
process  is  donefast  enough  (at 
least  25  times  a  second,  but 
preferably  much  faster)  the 


red  gun 


green 


p 
#  k 


green 

phosphor 

Vr  red 

\  phosphor 


shadow  mask 


red 

phosphor 
blue  phosphor 


phosphor  dots 


A  shadow-mask  CRT 


illusion  of  a  complete, 
continuous  picture  is  achieved. 

CRTs  in  close-up 

The  gun,  which  produces  the 
stream  of  electrons,  has  a  heater, 
which  literally  heats  up  a 
negatively  charged  metal  plate 
called  the  cathode.  M  etals  have  a 
supply  of  free  electrons  that  are 
not  permanently  bonded  to  any 
of  the  metal  atoms  -  this  is  why 
metals  conduct  electricity. 
Applying  heat  to  the  metal  gives 
the  electrons  enough  energy  to 
free  themselves  from  the  cathode, 
resulting  in  an  electron  cloud.  An 
electrical  terminal  called  the 
anode,  which  is  usually  placed  at 
thetop  of  thetubenearthe 
screen,  is  given  a  very  high  voltage 
relative  to  the  cathode  (tens  of 
thousands  of  volts),  which  has 
the  effect  of  accelerating  the 
electrons  very  strongly  towards 
the  screen  at  somewhere  around 
one-tenth  the  speed  of  light. 

On  the  way,  they  pass 
through  plates  called  thefocus 
plates  that  are  at  a  negative 
voltage  relative  to  the  cathode, 
which  has  the  effect  of 
compressing  thestream  into  a 
fine  beam.  A  metal  grid  in  the 
gun  assembly,  between  the 
cathodeand  anode,  controlsthe 
intensity  of  the  beam.  Applying  a 
voltage  to  thegrid  counters  the 
attraction  of  the  anode  and 
reduces  the  speed  of  the 
electrons,  producing  less  intense 
light  on  the  phosphor. 

Colour  displays 

In  a  simple,  monochromeCRT 
like  the  kind  you  would  find  in  an 
A-Level  physics  text  book,  there's 
just  a  uniform  coating  of 
phosphor  on  theback  of  the 
screen.  But  to  produce  a  sharp, 
colour  imageof  1,600  xl, 200 
pixels  that  refreshes  85  times  a 
second,  things  need  to  be  a  tad 
morecomplex 

Fora  start,  one  beam  isn't 
enough.  To  make  a  colour  picture 
you  need  to  combine  red,  green 
and  blue  elements  for  every  pixel 


JJlJ  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


pcwexpert 


TECHNOLOGY 


to  produce thefull  colourgamut. 
Three  individual  colours  means 
three  individual  electron  beams. 
And  remember  that  the  beams 
themselves  have  no  colour  -  it's 
theglowing  phosphorthat 
produces  the  colour,  so  three 
colours  means  three  different 
types  of  phosphor  with  different 
chemical  compositionsto  glow 
red,  green  or  blue  when 
bombarded  byelectrons. 

In  a  traditional  CRT,  the 
different  colours  of  phosphor  are 
arranged  in  groups  of  three  dots, 
known  as  triads,  across  the 
screen -thesetriads  are  small 
enough  that  their  individual 
colours  seem  to  mixtogether 
when  viewed  from  a  distance, 
producing  anycolour  of  the 
spectrum. 

An  electron  beam  can't, 
however,  be  perfectly  focused,  so 
something  is  needed  to  prevent 
the  individual  red,  green  and  blue 
beams  from  spilling  over  and 
illuminating  the  wrong  dots.  The 
oldest  method  of  doing  this  is 
with  a  shadow  mask.  This  is 
simply  a  sheet  of  metal  with 
minute  holes  drilled  in  it,  each 
one  coinciding  with  the  position 
of  a  phosphor  triad.  This  mask 
cleans  up  the  electron  beam, 
making  it  sharper  and  preventing 
the  beams  from  straying  into  the 
wrong  territory. 

Masks  and  apertures 

U  nfortunately,  the  shadow  mask 
has  a  disadvantage.  In  doing  its 
job,  the  mask  prevents  a 
significant  percentage  of  the 
energy  from  the  electron  beam 
reaching  the  phosphor,  so  the 
intensity  of  the  image  is  reduced. 
This  problem  was  first  solved 
when  Sonyintroduced  the 
Trinitron  tube  in  the  Sixties, 
which  was  thef  irst  example  of  an 
aperture-grilletube.  An  aperture 
grille  still  uses  a  mask  to  clean  up 
the  electron  beams,  except  that 
it's  formed  not  by  a  sheet  of 
metal  but  by  extremely  fine  wires, 
strung  vertically  behind  the 
screen.  Also,  rather  than  groups 
ofcircularphosphordotsin 
clusters,  aperture-grilletubes 
have  continuous  vertical  stripes 
of  red,  green  and  blue  phosphor. 

The  vertical-only  masking  is 
sufficient  to  give  the  required 


Graphics  cards:  The  other  half  of  the  equation 

Over  the  past  couple  of  years,  LCD  flat  panels 
have  started  to  become  more  popular,  mainly 
because  of  the  slow  but  steady  reductions  in 
price.  But,  as  we  all  know,  analog  CRT-based 
monitors  remain  massively  prevalent.  For  this 
reason,  graphics  cards  contain  a  rather 
anachronistic  bit  of  circuitry  -  the  RAMDAC. 

Computers  are  digital,  CRT  monitors  are  analog, 
so  the  RAMDAC  (random  access  memory  digital 
to  analog  converter)  sits  between  the  graphics 
card’s  frame  buffer  and  the  monitor’s  input,  and 
converts  the  digital  frame  store  into  an  analog 
video  signal. 

This  has  a  couple  of  ramifications.  First,  it 
means  that  a  significant  part  of  the  image 
quality  of  a  system  is  independent  of  the 
monitor:  if  the  RAMDAC  is  poorly  designed  and  produce  an  analog  signal  is  also  rather  daft  from 

has  insufficient  bandwidth,  it’ll  feed  a  poor  the  point  of  view  of  LCD  flat  panels:  most  still 

signal  to  the  monitor.  And  a  poor  signal,  fed  to  have  analog  inputs  to  cater  for  the  fact  that  the 

the  best  monitor  in  the  world,  will  result  in  a  majority  of  graphics  cards  only  have  analog 
bad  picture.  So,  if  you’re  disappointed  by  the  outputs.  So,  the  digital  frame  buffer  gets 
image  quality  of  your  brand  spanking  new  flat-  converted  to  an  analog  signal,  passed  to  the 

screen  CRT  monitor,  check  your  graphics  card.  monitor,  and  then  converted  back  to  a  digital 

The  best  for  2D  image  quality  as  far  as  signal,  introducing  two  entirely  unnecessary 

consumer  boards  go  is  still  Matrox  -  if  you’re  not  stages  of  D/A  and  A/D  conversion.  Up  until  now, 
interested  in  the  best  3D  performance,  the  solution  to  the  problem  has  been  to  get 

Millennium  G400s  are  now  a  good  deal,  but  if  yourself  a  panel  with  a  digital  input  and  a 
you’re  intending  to  run  at  resolutions  over  1,280  graphics  card  with  dual  analog/digital  outputs, 
x  1,024  the  slightly  enhanced  RAMDAC  sported  But  now  the  industry  is  starting  to  look  at  the 
by  the  G400MAX  is  a  better  bet,  and  it’s  also  problem  from  the  other  direction.  ViewSonic  and 
pretty  cheap  relative  to  the  likes  of  the  newest  Sony  both  have  CRT  monitors  with  digital  inputs 
nVidia  GeForce  2  cards.  in  the  pipeline,  and  you  can  expect  the  trend  to 

The  fact  that  the  majority  of  graphics  cards  become  industry-wide  in  the  coming  year. 


masking  effect,  and  has  the 
bonusthatmuch  moreofthe 
energy  from  the  electrons  makes 
it  through  to  the  phosphor.  This 
means  that  aperture-grilletubes 
can  have  a  much  darker  tint  of 
glass  and  still  get  a  brighter 
picture  than  would  be  possible 
with  shadow-mask  displays.  The 
result  is  far  better  contrast  and  a 
more  vivid  display. 

However,  there's  a  slight 
downside.  By  itself  the  row  of 
aperture-grille  wires  is  too 
susceptible  to  vibration  to  be 
practical -the  picture  would 
shimmer  and  distort  whenever 
someone  walked  past  your  desk. 
To  stop  the  vibration,  damper 
wires  are  strung  horizontally 
across  the  grille,  making  contact 


with  the  vertical  wires  and 
damping  out  the  movement. 
There  are  usually  two  of  these 
wires,  at  one-third  and  two-thirds 
of  the  way  up  the  screen.  Because 
they're  in  the  path  of  the 
oncoming  electrons,  they  cast  a 
shadow  on  the  screen  that  is 
usuallyjust  visible  as  a  coupleof 
faint  black  lines  if  you're 
displaying  a  pure  white 
background.  This  is  one  of  those 
things  that  most  peopledon't 
mind,  butsomefind  unbelievably 
irritating.  So,  try  before  you  buy, 
but  bear  in  mind  that  it's  getting 
increasingly  difficult  to  buy 
higher-end  monitors  that  aren't 
aperture  grille-based,  particularly 
flat-screen  CRTs,  although 
Samsung's  IF  (infiniteflat)  tubes 


are  shadow-mask  units. 

It's  not  just  Trinitron  displays 
that  have  aperture  grilles  these 
days  -  Mitsubishi  is  the  second 
most  prominent  aperture-grille 
manufacturer  with  its 
Diamondtron tubes.  NEC  makes 
its  own  aperture-grilletubes  too, 
as  well  as  being  the  inventor 
some  years  back  of  CromaClear 
tubes,  which  area  slot-mask 
design  -  a  shadow  mask  with 
vertical  slots  rather  than  holes  to 
give  some  of  the  benefits  of  an 
aperture  grille. 

Sticky  problems 

A  monitor's  electron  beams 
originatefrom  a  singlefixed  point 
and  haveto  besweptfrom  sideto 
side  by  the  deflection  yoke.  This 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000  •  ftj 


31 


pcwexpert 


TECHNOLOGY 


It’s  a  fuzzy  old  world 

The  world  of  computing  is  fundamentally  a 
digital  one.  One  of  the  things  that  makes  digital 
systems  great  is  that  they’re  consistent  and 
repeatable,  so  if  we  benchmark  a  1GHz  Pentium 
III  system  and  it  gets  a  certain  score,  you  can  be 
sure  that  if  you  buy  the  same  system  it’ll  be  just 
as  fast. 

Unfortunately,  monitors  based  on 
conventional  CRT  technology  are  fundamentally 
analog  devices.  And  analog  devices  vary.  This 
can  happen  from  moment  to  moment,  as  you’ll 
see  if  you  adjust  your  monitor’s  picture  just  after 
switching  it  on.  Come  back  half  an  hour  later 
and  it’ll  likely  need  adjusting  again  having 
warmed  up. 

But  analog  devices  also  vary  from  device  to 
device,  and  monitors  are  no  exception.  Picture 
tubes  are  particularly  susceptible  to  this,  and 
manufacturers  are  well  aware  of  the  fact. 
Consequently,  their  picture  tubes  are  tested  and 
graded  as  they  come  off  the  production  line. 

The  variations  in  almost  any  system  in  the 
real  world  will  form  a  bell-shaped  graph  known 
as  a  Gaussian  normal  distribution  curve.  This 
applies  to  analog  monitor  manufacture  too. 

Most  of  the  samples  manufactured  will  be  pretty 
good  and  are  represented  by  the  hump  in  the 
middle  of  the  curve.  But  a  few  will  be  poor  - 


A  quality 


quantity 


these  are  the  ones  to  the  left  of  the  hump,  while 
those  better  than  average,  or  even  very  good 
indeed,  produce  the  right-hand  side  of  the 
hump,  which  tapers  off.  In  general, 
manufacturers  will  take  the  large  middle  sample 
of  tubes  and  use  them  in  their  medium-range 
monitors  and  save  the  smaller  bunch  of  better 
quality  units  for  use  in  their  higher-end  units. 

This  is  why,  when  you’re  comparing 
manufacturers  or  models,  you  shouldn’t  just  rely 
on  the  published  numbers  such  as  dot  pitch, 
video  bandwidth  and  so  on.  If  you  really  want 
quality,  go  for  the  highest-end  range  at  your 
chosen  screen  size,  even  if  the  paper 
specifications  appear  broadly  similar  to  a 
cheaper  model. 


means  the  edges  of  the  screen  are 
further  away  from  the  gun  than 
the  centre,  which  creates  three 
problems  when  it  comes  to 
keeping  the  image  sharp  right 
into  the  corners:  beam  focus, 
beam  shape  and  colour 
convergence.  In  practice,  the 
electron  beam  coming  from  a 
gun  isn't  perfectly  straight  like  a 
laser.  The  electrons  tend  to 
spread  out  like  normal  light,  so 
they  need  to  be  focused  into  a 
spot  on  the  phosphor  mask.  In 
the  past,  when  the  focusing 
plates  in  thegun  werefixed,  the 
need  to  maintain  focus  dictated 
that  screens  had  to  be  curved  to 
maintain  a  constant  distance 
from  thegun  to  the  screen 
regardless  of  deflection  angle- 
the  screen  was  essentially  a 
section  of  a  sphere. 

The  screen  had  to  be  curved 
for  two  more  reasons  as  well: 
first,  because  at  the  extreme 


edges  the  shape  of  the  beam 
would  appear  elliptical  as  it  cut 
through  the  shadow  maskand 
met  the  phosphor,  reducing 
resolution;  and  second,  thethree 
individual  red,  green  and  blue 
beams  need  to  be  focussed 
together  so  that  they  converge  at 
thesame  point.  These  three 
factors  are  the  reasons  that 
traditionally  it's  been  very  hard  to 
find  monitors  whose  focus, 
sharpness  and  colour 
convergence  are  as  good  at  the 
edges  as  they  are  in  the  middle  of 
thescreen,  and  whyold  and 
cheap  monitors  have  goldfish 
bowl  screens. 

Modern  beam  trickery 

The  aperture-grilletube  was  one 
of  thefirst  technologies  to  start 
flattening  out  monitors  -  it 
allowed  the  screen  to  beflat  in 
thevertical  direction,  another 
reason  aperture  grilles  have  often 


been  preferred  over  shadow- 
mask  displays.  But  to  flatten  out 
thescreen  in  the  other  direction  - 
and  generally  improve  corner-to- 
corner  performance  over  the  past 
decade-  dynamic  beam  shaping 
and  focusing  methods  were 
introduced,  and  have  been 
getting  cleverer. 

As  the  name  suggests,  rather 
than  relying  on  fixed  magnets  or 
plates  to  focus  and  shape  the 
electron  beam,  dynamic  focusing 
techniques  use  electromagnetic 
coils  in  a  similar  wayto  the 
deflection  yoke  to  constantly 
influencethefocal  point  of  the 
beam,  as  well  as  its  shape,  as  it 
gets  scanned  across  the  screen. 
Asthetechniqueshave 
progressed,  monitors  have  got 
flatter  and  flatter,  and  last  year 
thefirst  completely 
flat-screen  CRT  monitors  started 
to  appear,  manufactured 
by  M  itsubishi  with  its 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Diamondtron  NF  (natural  flat) 
tubes  and  Sony  with  the  FD  (flat 
display)  Trinitron. 

Drive  electronics 

H  aving  the  world 's  best  tube  in 
your  monitor  is  all  very  well,  but 
the  design  of  its  supporting 
electronics  can  be  just  as 
important.  In  thesedigital  times, 
analog  electronic  expertise  is  fast 
disappearing,  and  consequently 
this  is  where  a  smaller 
manufacturer  can  fall  foul  of  the 
major  players' expertise. 
Combining  high-power,  high- 
tension  power  supplies  with  the 
design  accuracy  and  finesse 
required  to  place  an  electron 
beam  to  within  fractions  of  a 
millimetrein  two  million-odd 
separate  places,  80  times  a 
second,  is  a  pretty  tall  order.  The 
electronics  of  a  monitor,  in 
particular  the  bandwidth  of  its 
video  amplifier,  are  what  limits  its 
maximum  practical  resolution. 

The  video  amplifier,  which  is 
the  system  that  turns  the 
extremely  low  power  signal  from 
your  graphics  card  into 
something  powerful  enough  to 
sweep  the  electron  beam  across 
the  display,  has  to  work  harder 
and  harder  as  the  resolution  and 
refresh  rate  increase.  At 
Windows'  default  Safe  M  ode 
resolution  of  640  x480  at  60Hz, 
the  monitor  must  paint  around 
18  million  pixels  on  the  screen 
every  second  -  the  video  amplifier 
isworkingatl8MHz. 

Put  a  modern  high-end  21in 
CRT  onyourdesk,  set  the 
resolution  to  1,800  x  1,440  at 
85Hzand  its  video  amplifiermust 
run  at  220MHz.  These 
frequencies  are  harder  to  achieve 
than  they  are  in,  for  instance, 
your  graphics  card,  because  of 
the  much  higher  power  required. 
You  can  see  when  your  monitor  is 
reaching  the  limits  of  its  video 
bandwidth,  whether  through 
increases  in  resolution,  refresh 
rate  or  both,  because  the  picture 
will  lose  its  sharpness.  Thefact 
that  higher  refresh  rates  need 
more  bandwidth  means  that  if 
you're  happy  with  your  display 
and  can't  see  any  flicker  at  85H  z, 
there's  no  need  to  increase  the 
rate,  even  if  the  monitor  can 
theoretically  achieve  it. 


pcwexpert 


TECHNOLOGY 


Two  dimensions  with  a  twist 

High  costs  and  manufacturing  hitches  have  held  LCDs  back,  but  by  overcoming  these  hurdles  they  threaten  to  usurp  CRTs 


s  we  saw  when  tracing  the 
historyof  displays,  the 
principles  of  liquid  crystal 
technology  were  known  in  the 
19th  Century  and  were  actually 
around  before  the  invention  of 
the  cathode  ray  tube.  Despite 
this,  viablecolour  LCD  displays 
for  computers  have  only  been 
around  for  the  last  few  years,  for 
several  good  economic  and 
technological  reasons. 

The  basics 

All  modern  liquid  crystal  displays 
workon  the  twisted-nematic 
principle.  Fundamentally,  a 
twisted-nematic  display  consists 
of  five  layers.  The  liquid  crystal 
layer  is  sandwiched  between  two 
substrates,  which  have  been 
rubbed  at  90  degrees  to  each 
other,  so  that  the  direction  of 
the  liquid  crystals  is  twisted  by 
90  degrees  when  no  voltage 
is  applied. 

At  thetop  and  bottom  of  this 
sandwich  are  polarising  filters, 
also  arranged  at  90  degrees  to 
each  other.  Because  the  twisted 
liquid  crystal  has  the  effect  of 
twisting  the  polarisation  of  light, 
when  no  voltage  is  applied,  the 
light  can  passthrough  the 
display.  But  applying  a  voltage 
untwists  the  crystal.  Now, 
because  the  po  larising  filters  are 
at  90  degrees  to  each  other,  the 
light  is  blocked  and  that  segment 
of  the  display  goes  dark.  Varying 
the  voltage  varies  the  amount  of 


Viable  colour 
LCD  displays 
for  computers 
have  only  been 
around  for  the 
last  few  years 


twist  in  the  liquid  crystal, 
allowing  shades  of  grey. 

LCDs  to  PC  displays 

Turning  a  simple,  segmented  LCD 
you  might  find  in  a  pocket 
calculator  into  a  high-resolution 
colour  display  introduces  a  whole 
lot  of  complications. 

First,  nobody  these  days 
wants  a  monochromedisplay.  So 


for  each  pixel  you  need  three 
closely-grouped  liquid  crystal 
elements,  each  fitted  with  a  red, 
green  or  blue  filter,  in  the  same 
way  as  the  phosphor  triads  of 
a  CRT. 

With  all  those  separate 
liquid  crystal  elements  to  worry 
about,  the  main  problem  is 
addressability.  Each  of  the  nearly 
2.3  million  red,  green  and  blue 
elements  in  a  1,024  x768  display 
needs  to  be  able  to  be  activated 
individually.  When  you  have  that 
many  pixels,  the  normal  method 
of  switching  individual  elements, 
known  as  passive  matrix 
addressing,  becomes  tricky.  With 
passive  addressing,  each  element 
is  connected  via  transparent 
conductors  to  theedgeof  the 
display  in  columns  and  rows.  The 
on-screen  image  is  built  up  line  by 
line.  Thedisplaycircuitryapplies 


a  voltage  to  a  column  electrode, 
proportional  to  the  colours 
required  for  the  current  line  of 
pixels.  Then  the  row  electrode  for 
the  current  line  is  pulsed  on,  and 
that  line  of  pixels  is  set.  This 
happens  for  every  row.  But 
because  each  pixel  is  only  briefly 
pulsed  on,  ratherthan  being  held 
onforthedurationoftheframe, 
passive  matrixscreens  must  use 


liquid  crystal  that  untwists  slowly, 
so  that  each  pixel  holds  its  twist 
until  the  next  time  the  screen  is 
refreshed.  This  leads  to  fast,  or 
even  moderatelyfast-moving 
objects  being  smeared  severely. 

Active  matrix  displays 

Active  matrixTFT  (thin-film 
transistor)  displays  massively 
improve  pixel  response  times  to 
get  around  the  screen  smearing 
problem.  Theyalso  have  far 
better  colour  and  clarity  than 
passive  screens.  TFT  displaysare 
basically  one  large  silicon  chip, 
etched  onto  a  glass  substrate. 
Thetwistof  each  pixel  is 
controlled  bya  separate 
transistor  etched  onto  the  glass. 
Each  transistor  can  hold  the 
voltage  applied  to  its  associated 
pixel  until  the  next  time  the  screen 
is  refreshed.  So  TFT  screens  can 


use  very  fast-twist  liquid  crystal, 
and  the  lag  and  smearing  are 
avoided. 

The  big  problem 

The  traditional  trouble  with  TFT 
displays  is  thefact  that  the  whole 
unit  is  a  big  integrated  circuit  that 
has  to  be  etched  in  a  tabbing 
plant  in  thesame wayas  normal 
chips,  forexampleCPUs.  The 
tabbing  plants  are  phenomenally 
expensive,  and  it's  very  hard  to 
make  silicon  wafers  large  enough 
and  with  few  enough  defects. 

M  ore  than  threeorfourdefects  in 
a  wafer  means  more  than  the 
acceptable  handful  of  dead  pixels 
onthefinished  display.  Initially, 
theyields  on  TFT  manufacturing 
were  extremely  low,  and 
consequently  the  prices  were 
phenomenallyhigh. 

Things  have  improved  of  late, 
but  TFT  manufacture  is  still 
fundamentally  trickier  and 
more  expensive  than  CRT 
manufacture,  hence  the  price  of 
flat-panel  displays. 

Viewing  angles 

UnlikeCRTs,  LCDsaren'tan 
emissive  display  technology.  In 
other  words,  they  don't  produce 
their  own  light.  The  liquid  crystal 
elements  simply  control  the 
degreeof  transmission  of  light 
from  behind  the  display  through 
to  thefront.  So,  to  beableto  see 
anything,  LCDs  need  a  pure- 
white,  fluorescent  light  behind 
them.  This  fact  gives  rise  to 
problems  with  viewing  angle.  The 
light  from  the  backlight  doesn't 
only  go  where  it's  supposed  to  -  it 
can  leak  across  to  adjacent  pixels, 
and  if  you're  looking  at  the 
display  from  a  point  of  view 
that's  not  head-on,  you  start 
seeing  this  stray  light,  and  the 
display  tends  to  become  illegible. 
This  situation  is  improving 
rapidly  though,  as  manufacturers 
get  to  grips  with  filtering 
methods.  The  best  panels  now 
give  a  viewing  angle  of  up  to  80 
degrees  to  either  side  as  well  as 
up  and  down. 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000  •  PE fc 


pcwexpert 


TECHNOLOGY 


Survival  of  the  flattest 

As  LCD  screens  become  the  latest  objects  of  desire  does  the  cathode-ray  tube  still  have  something  to  offer? 


□  s  we've  seen,  the  world  of 
monitors  is  now  split 
broadlyinto  two  camps:  LCD  flat 
panels  and  monitors  based  on 
moreconventional  CRT 
technology. 

Because 
LCD  flat  panels 
are  the  more 
modern 
technology 
people  have  a 
tendencyto 
assumethat 
they're  inherently 
superior  in  every 
respect.  However, 
while  it'struethat 
LCDs  do  have  big 
advantages  with 
certain  aspects  of 
their  performance,  the 
good  old  CRT  can  still  hold  its 
own  in  a  few  key  areas. 

You  only  need  to  glance  at  an 
LCD  flat  panel  to  see  that  they 
take  up  very  I ittle  space  on  the 
desk.  WhilesomenewerCRTsare 
fitted  with  short-neck  picture 
tubes,  they're  still  much  larger 
and  heavier  than  an  LCD  panel 
with  equivalent  screen  area.  They 
also  consume  far  more  power.  A 
CRT  monitor  typically  needs  100- 
150win  use,  whilean  LCD  panel 
may  need  onlyl5-20w.  So  LCD 
panels  are  at  once 
environmentallyfriendlier, 
cheaper  to  run  and  farcooler 
than  CRTs.  It'sthis cool-running 
nature  and  compact  size  that 
makes  LCDs  a  big  plusfor 
financial  centres  where  hundreds 
of  displays  can  be  needed  in  a 
relatively  confined  space. 

People  often  refer  to  the 
'perfect'  imagequalityof  LCD 
displays,  but  that's  a  claim  that 
unfortunately  simply  isn't  true. 
You  can  liken  the  performance 
and  lookof  an  LCD'simageto 
the  euphoria  that  greeted  the 
advent  of  compact  discs.  Fora 
while,  everyone  simply  assumed, 
with  the  help  of  some  heavy- 
handed  marketing,  that  CDs  were 
perfect.  But  then  a  few  heretics 
realised  that  they  weren't,  that 


they  could  sound  cold  and  hard, 
and  that  they  preferred  the 
warmth  of  vinyl.  The  same  is  true 
of  LCD  panels  when  compared  to 
CRT  displays.  Only  one  aspect  of 


an  LCD's 
image  can  truly 
be  said  to  be  perfect: 
image  geometry.  The  individual 
pixels  of  an  LCD  panel  are  fixed  in 
place  when  the  panel  is 
manufactured,  and  the  shape  of 
theimagecan  never  drift  out  of 
alignment  in  the  waythat  a  CRT's 
can.  But  as  you'll  find  out  if  you 
turn  to  the  back  of  this  section 
and  use DisplayM ateto setup 
your  monitor  correctly,  there's  a 
lot  more  to  imagequalitythan 
simply  geometry. 

The  idea  that  LCDs  are 
perfectly  sharp  is  not  correct. 
While  it /struethat  LCDs  have 
very,  very  good  sharpness  that 
will  never  drift  out  of  sync,  the 
next  time  you  see  an  LCD  panel 
take  a  close-up  look.  You'll  see 
two  things:  first,  a  black  border 
surrounds  each  and  every  pixel. 
This  is  the  silicon  electrically 
connecting  each  trio  of 
transistors  to  the  drive 
electronics.  So  a  line  or  character 
of  text  that  should  becontinuous 
is  always  visibly  broken  up  into  its 
constituent  parts.  This  makes  flat 
panelsa  poorchoiceformany 
graphics  applications.  Second, 
the  red,  green  and  blue  elements 
of  each  pixel  are  not  perfectly 
aligned:  they  never  can  be, 
because  the  intensity  of  the  three 
colours  for  each  pixel  is 
controlled  byseparatetransistors 


that  have  to  be  placed  next  to 
each  other  on  the  glass  substrate. 

So,  the  colour  convergence  of 
an  LCD,  while  it  will  always  be 
good,  can  never  be  perfect  and 
can  beoutstripped  bya  CRT.  In 
many  panels  you'll  also  see  a 
handful  of  dead  pixels  that  are 
always  black,  although  the  silicon 
fabrication  methods  used  for 
panels  are  getting  better  all  the 
time  and  are  starting  to  eliminate 
this  problem. 

An  LCD  panel  has  a  fixed 
number  of  pixels.  This  means  that 
it  has  a  fixed, 
native 
resolution 
above 
which  it's 
impossibleto 
go.  It  also 
means  that 
switching 
down  to  lower 
resolutions 
produces 

aliasing  distortions  as 
the  position  of  the 
pixels  in  the 


computer's 
image  buffer  don't 
match  the  actual, 
physical  positions  of  the 
panel's  pixels.  Most  panels 
these  days  can  compensate  for 
this  with  anti-aliasing  circuitry 
that  effectively  blurs  the  image  to 
maketheeffect  less  pronounced, 
but  you'rethen  left  looking  at  a 
display  reminiscent  of  the  image 
your  BBC  M  icro  produced  when 
you  hooked  it  up  to  your  telly 
in  1982. 

In  contrast,  a  CRT  can  cope 
with  a  much  wider  range  of 
resolutions.  A  top-end  21in  CRT, 
forinstance  Sony'sG500,  which 
won  our  last  21in  monitor  group 
test,  can  reach  1,800  x  1,440  and 


still  remain  usable.  But  there's 
still  no  commercially  available 
panel  that  can  manage  more 
than  1,280x1,024.  If  you'rea 
resolution  junkie  and  need  the 
biggest  desktop  possible,  a  CRT 
istheonly  choice. 

Viewing  angle  is  also  a  boneof 
contention  with  panels.  Although 
several  manufacturers,  notably 
ADI,  arenow  producing  panels 
that  can  be  viewed  from  the  sides 
with  almost  no  apparent  changes 
in  hue,  many  cheaper  panels  still 
have  a  very  limited  range  of 
positions  in  which  they  can 
comfortably  be  used.  And  when 
you'recloseuptooneof 
these  panels,  the 
slight  difference  in 
the  image  seen  by 
your  right  and  left 
eyes  can  eventually 
lead  to  an 
uncomfortable 
cross-eyed  feeling, 
which  cancels  out 
the  advantages 
oftheflicker- 
free  nature  of 
LCDs. 

Colour 

reproduction  and 
vibrancy  is  a  second 
aspect  that  most  CRTs 
can  claim  to  do 
better  than 
most  panels.  No 
LCD  monitor 
can  yet  match 
the  warmth 
and  richness 
of  a  good 
aperture  grille- 
based  CRT. 

There  are  plenty  of  people 
who,  seeing  a  flat  panel  for  the 
first  time,  will  fall  in  love  with 
them  and  never  want  to  look  at 
another  CRT.  But  there  are  also 
plenty  of  peoplethat,  like  the 
vinyl  lovers,  will  always  prefer  the 
warmth  and  laid-back  look  of  a 
CRT  against  the  cold  edgeof  a 
flat  panel.  It's  not  an  open  and 
shut  case  and  don't  let  anyone 
convince  you  otherwise.  Use  your 
own  eyes  to  decide. 


HWl  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


pcwexpert 


TECHNOLOGY 


Ergonomics  and  emissions 

For  anyone  regularly  using  a  PC  monitor  we  have  some  essential  advice  for  reducing  its  effects  on  you  and  your  environment 


he  majority  of  people  in  the 
western  world  are  spending 
an  increasing  percentage  of  their 
working  lives  sitting  in  front  of 
their  computers  and  staring  at 
their  monitors.  And  once  they 
leave  work,  do  they  head  out  for 
a  brisk  walk?  Er,  no.  They  go 
home,  sit  back  down  in  front  of 
another  computer  and  spend  the 
next  five  hours  lost  in  the  web. 

Little  wonder  then,  that  lots 
of  different  agencies  and 
organisations  have  been  getting 
worried  about  our  health  and  the 
ways  that  all  this  exposure  to 
computers  might  hurt  us  and  the 
planet.  Users  should  give  serious 
thought  to  ergonomics  and 
emissions,  while  recyclability  and 
energy  efficiency  are  key  to 
preserving  the  environment. 

In  every  computer  hardware 
manual  these  days,  warnings  of 
dire  consequences  abound  if  you 
fail  to  follow  the  instructions  on 
preventing  computer-related 
injuries  like  RSI.  And  while  many 
of  us  at  PCI/1/  regularlyfailto  take 
any  notice  of  these,  there's  no 
denying  that  you  should,  at  the 
very  least,  take  note  of  your 
posture  and  display  position  (see 
box).  You  should  also  take  care 
not  to  go  for  mo  re  than  a  few 
hours  in  front  of  your  monitor 
without  taking  a  break  to  let  your 
eyes,  back  and  brain  recover. 
Beyond  these  basic  common 
sense  ergonomics,  however,  there 
are  still  the  issues  of  emissions 
and  the  environment  to  consider. 

The  problem  with  emissions 
wasthefirstto  cause  concern 
and  set  the  standards  ball  rolling. 
Back  in  the  Eighties,  when 
mo  n  ito  rs  were  sta  rt  i  n  g  to 
become  widespread  in  offices, 
the  cocktail  of  electromagnetic 
radiation  emitted  by  displays  at 
the  time  wasa  prime  causeof 
worry,  particularlyfor  pregnant 
women.  So,  in  safety-conscious 
Sweden,  the  M  PRII  standard  for 
electromagnetic  radiation  was 
developed.  This  was  a  standard 
designed  to  reduceemissionsto 
very  low  levels,  while  keeping  a 


close  eye  on  the  economic 
implicationsforthe 
manufacturers.  However,  the 
Swedish  trade  union  TCO  wasn't 
satisfied,  and  came  up  with  the 
far  more rigorousTC092 
standard.  TC095  followed, 
addressing  environmental  and 
ergonomic  issues,  such  as  the  use 
of  toxic  heavy  metals  in  CRT 
manufacture,  the  degree  of 
screen  reflectivity  and  so  on.  It 
also  covered  energy-efficiency,  as 
does  the  U  S  Government's 
Energy  Star  programme. 

Under  both  Energy  Star  and 
TCO  95,  office  electrical  devices 
must  now  beableto  put 
themselves  into  low-power 


standby  mode  after  a  preset 
period  of  inactivity. 

W  ith  the  release  of  TCO  99 
last  year,  the  stringency  and 
scopeoftheTCO  label  reached 
new  levels.  If  a  monitor  has  that 
TCO  99  sticker,  it  mustn't  just  be 
recyclable:  the  company  that 
produced  it  must  have  a  recycling 
policyin  place,  and  should  be 
ableto  preparethedisplayfor 
recycling  at  the  end  of  its  useful 
life.  TCO  99  also  covers  a  massive 
array  of  ergonomic  and 
environmental  factors  like 
acoustic  noise,  image  quality 
performance;  including 
geometric  distortion  and  light 
levels,  and  even  the  operation 


of  tilt  and  swivel  mechanisms. 

There  was  initially  some 
industry  cynicism  over  the 
TC099  standard.  Someclaimed 
it  wouldn't  really  havean 
environmental  impact  over  what 
TC095  had  achieved,  while  many 
argued  that  it  was  simply  too 
expensive  to  implement.  But 
every  major  display  manufacturer 
has  taken  it  up  and  we've  seen 
veryfew  new  monitors  in  recent 
months  that  haven't  been 
certified.  It  may  be  a  little  over- 
zealous  in  its  reach,  but  there's 
no  denying  that  a  monitor  with 
TCO 99  certification  should  give 
you  confidence  that  it's 
completely  safe  to  use. 


How  low  can  you  go? 

Traditionally,  users  were  advised  that  the  centre 
of  their  screen  be  positioned  more  or  less  at  eye 
height,  so  their  head  was  straight  and  level  - 
having  your  head  tilted  forward  was  believed  to 
lead  to  neck  strain. 


Viewing  angles  are  different  between  the 
top  and  bottom 


i  % 


The  thinking  is  now  based  on  consideration 
of  how  vision  has  evolved  in  humans.  In 
everyday  life,  if  your  head  is  level,  you’re  likely  to 
be  focusing  into  the  distance,  not  at  an  object  a 
foot  or  two  away.  It’s  far  more  natural  to  be 
focusing  closely  on  an  object  that’s  below  you, 
either  on  the  ground  or  in  your  hands. 

A  neat  way  of  exaggerating  this  effect  for 


illustration  is  by  trying  to  read  a  book  held  above 
your  head:  your  physiology  is  used  to  focusing 
into  infinity  when  you’re  looking  up, 
consequently  your  eyes  will  start  feeling 
strained,  even  though  it’s  only  your  neck 
position  that  has  changed. 

So,  the  best  compromise  between  what  your 

_  body  and  brain  is  used  to  and 

minimising  the  risk  of  neck  ache  is  by 
positioning  your  screen  so  that  the  top 
of  the  viewable  area  is  level  with  your 
eyes.  This  means  you’re  looking 
slightly  downward,  but  not  so  much 
that  the  weight  of  your  head  will  start 
straining  your  neck. 

Common  sense  dictates  where  you 
should  and  shouldn’t  place  a  monitor  in 
a  room.  Avoid  positions  that  result  in 
reflections  from  lighting  -  if  you  have 
uplighting,  where  the  light  reflects  off 
the  ceiling  and  is  diffused  into  the 
room,  you’re  less  likely  to  be  bothered 
by  glare  than  with  the  clear  reflections 
you  tend  to  get  from  offices  that  have  exposed 
fluorescent  tubes. 

You  also  need  to  avoid  having  the  monitor 
directly  in  front  of  a  window,  where  the  light 
from  outside  could  be  brighter  than  the  display 
itself,  resulting  in  your  squinting.  If  you  have  to 
be  close  to  a  window,  having  the  monitor  side- 
on  to  it  is  your  best  bet. 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000  • 


pcwexpert 


FUTURE 

The  persistence  of  vision 

As  display  technology  gets  bigger,  better  and  cheaper,  researchers  are  setting  their  sights  on  a  ‘digital  paper’  display 


iketherestofthecompu- 
ting  world,  it's  pretty  easy 
to  predict  thetrends  in  display 
technology  in  the  short  to 
medium  term  -  bigger,  better  and 
cheaper.  With  conventional 
CRTs,  this  means  the 
replacement  of  old  shadow-mask 
tubes  with  flat-screen  aperture- 
grille  versions,  across  the  board 
from  15in  displays  upwards. 

Companies  likeSonyand  ADI 
havealreadydonethis,  and 
others  are  sure  to  follow  their 
lead .  And  within  a  year  or  so,  the 
normal  analog  inputs  on  CRT 
monitors  will  start  to  be  replaced 
with  digital  connectors  as  digital- 
to-analog  conversion  circuitry 
migrates  from  graphics  card  to 
monitor.  This  makes  economic 
sense,  since  it  should  mean 
graphics  cards  get  cheaper,  and 
most  people  upgrade  graphics 
cards  far  more  often  than  they  do 
their  monitors.  In  addition,  the 
ability  of  monitor  manufacturers 
to  tailor  the  D/A  convertor  to 
their  particular  monitor  will 
mean  quality  gains  as  well. 

Asforflat  panels,  you  can 
expect  thefirst  widely  available 
panel  with  a  native  resolution  of 
1,600x1,200  very  soon.  It  won't 
be  cheap,  of  course,  but  it  should 
have  the  knock-on  effect  of  a 
price  drop  for  lower  resolution 
panels.  An  increase  in  the  number 
of  graphics  cards  with  digital 
outputs  will  mean  that  panel 
makers  can  drop  the  analog  to 


Everyone  knows 
the  world  is 
going  mobile,  and 
that’s  where  the 
major  research 
is  going  on 


digital  conversion  circuitryand 
flat  panels  will  beableto  liveup 
to  their  full,  pixel-perfect 
capabilities. 

So  far,  so  predictable.  In  the 
long  term,  display  technology 
gets  exciting  but  weird.  There  are 
dozens  of  companies  and 
university  research  groups 
working  on  the  displays  of  the 
future.  With  modern  monitors 
managing  resolutions  of  1,800  x 
1,440,  the  desktop  display 
market  is  pretty  much  covered. 
But  everyone  knows  the  world  is 
going  mobile,  and  that's  where 
the  major  research  is  going  on. 

Conventional  colourTFT 
displays  are  very  expensive  and 
need  a  lot  of  powerfortheir 
fluorescent  backlight  -  no  good 
for  cheap  phones  with  small 
batteries.  The  most  promising 
technologyon  thisfront  is  light- 
emitting  polymers  (LEPs).  LEPs 
work  in  the  same  way  as  the 
ubiquitous  LED  (light-emitting 
diode),  but  the/ re  flexible  and 
can  beproduced  asa  liquid,  and 
literally  printed  onto  a  substrate. 
British-based  Cambridge  Display 
Technology  (www.cdtltd.co.uk), 
the  main  developer  of  LEPs,  has 
alreadyjoined  forces  with  Seiko- 
Epson  and  produced  a  prototype 
colour  mobilephonedisplay.  The 
really  interesting  part  is  that  the 
displayisactuallymadeby 
printing  it  with  a  modified  inkjet 
printer.  A  conducting  polymer 
layer  is  printed  onto  a  substrate, 
to  form  the  electrical  pathways 
needed  to  power  the  LEPs,  then 
the  pixelsfor  the  display  are 
printed  using  liquid  red,  blue  and 
green  LEP  'ink'. 

The  reason  many  people  are 
getting  excited  by  LEPs  is  the 
possibilitythat  in  thefuturethe 
H  oly  Grail  of  display  technology 
could  be  realised:  digital  paper.  A 
medium  that  feels  like  the  normal 
paper  everyone  knows  and  loves, 
but  that  can  display  anything  at 
all,  anytime.  But  obviously,  LEPs 
differ  from  normal  paper  in  one 
crucial  respect:  LEP  displays  are 
emissive  rather  than  reflective; 


they  emit  light,  whereas  normal 
paper  doesn't.  So,  although 
they're  low  power,  LEP  displays 
still  need  a  fairly  significant 
battery. 

Over  at  that  hotbed  of 
whacky  digital  media  research, 
the  M  assachusetts  I  nstitute  of 
Technology,  they' re  working  on  a 
system  of  reusable  electronic 
paper  that  really  does  look  and 
feel  like  normal  paper,  but  that 
can  display  anything  you  like,  any 
time,  with  near-zero  power 
required  (www.media.mit. 
edu/micromedia).  Thecurrent 
system  works  by  printing  a  layer 
of  microcapsules  onto  a 
substrate.  The  capsules  contain 
black  ink  and  a  white  titanium 
powder.  Applying  a  tiny  voltage 
to  the  capsu les  fo rces  the  white 
powderto  thetop,  making  that 


pixel  appear  white,  or  forces  it  to 
the  bottom  where  it's  covered  by 
the  black  ink,  turning  the  pixel 
black.  This  still  needs  current 
applied  all  the  time,  but  the  lab's 
aim  is  for  a  system  whereby  the 
capsules  contain  tiny  freely 
rotating  balls,  whiteon  one  side 
and  black  on  the  other.  This 
wouldn't  need  any  power  at  all 
once  the  display  had  been  set. 

It  all  soundsfar-fetched,  but 
researchers  at  Xerox's  famous 
Palo  Alto  Research  Center  have 
also  got  a  similar  system  that 
they've  demonstrated.  The 
technology  already  exists  and  it 
really  works,  albeit  fairly  crudely. 
It  seems  that  the  notion  of  the 
ebook,  which  is  currently  no 
more  than  a  PDA  showing  text 
files,  could  become  a  reality 
sooner  than  manywould  think. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


ILLUSTRATION  TOM  GREEN 


pcwexpert 


GLOSSARY 


Monitor  terminology 

This  month’s  pew  cuts  through  the  confusing  jargon  and  acronyms  that  comprise  the  modern  monitor’s  glossary 


Active  matrix:  A  type  of  liquid- 
crystal  display  with  improved 
pixel  response  time  over  passive 
matrixversions. 

Aperture  grille:  Performs  the 
same  job  as  a  shadow  mask,  but 
uses  vertical  wires  instead  of  a 
perforated  sheet.  The  aperture 
grille  allows  a  darker  tint  of  glass 
for  better  contrast. 

Bandwidth:  Thefrequency 
range  that  a  system  can  reliably 
transmit  or  amplify.  In  CRT 
monitors,  the  video  bandwidth 
determines  the  monitor's 
maximum  practical  resolutions 
and  refresh  rates. 

CRT  (cathode  ray  tube): 
Theevacuated  glass  picturetube 
that  conventional  monitors  are 
based  on. 

Diamondtron:  Proprietary 
namefor  M  itsubishi's  aperture- 
grilletubes. 

Degaussing:  M  ethod  of 
demagnetising  a  monitor  to  get 
rid  of  unwanted  colour  blooms. 

M  ost  monitors  have  a  degauss 
option  that  sends  a  large  burst  of 
current  through  a  coil  around  the 
outsideofthetube. 

DSTN  (dual-scan  twisted 
nematic):  Type  of  passive 
matrix  LCD  that  splits  the  screen 
in  two,  enabling  faster  twist 
liquid  crystal  to  be  used  for  faster 
pixel  response  times. 

Dynamic  range:  The  maximum 
and  minimum  levels  of  signal  a 
monitor  is  capable  of  displaying. 
Monitors  with  a  limited  dynamic 
range  will  have  poor  contrast. 
Emissive:  Display  types  where 
the  light  is  produced  and  the 
image  formed  by  the  same  part  of 
thedisplay.  CRT  displays 
are  emissive. 

Gamut:  The  range  of  colours  a 
graphics  system  is  capable  of 
displaying. 

High-tension  power  supply: 

Alternate  namefor  high-voltage 
power  supply.  High-tension 
supplies  generating  tens  of 
thousands  of  volts  are  used  in 
monitors,  primarilyto  accelerate 
the  gun's  electron  beam  toward 
the  screen. 


Hz:  Hertz  Cycles  per  second. 
Named  after theGerman 
physicist  Heinrich  Hertz. 

LCD  (liquid-crystal  display): 

A  display  technology  that  uses 
the  unique  properties  of 
liquid  crystals  to  control 
transmitted  light. 

Moire:  An  undesirable 
patterning  effect  that  occurs  with 
CRT  monitors dueto  the 
frequency  difference  between  the 
displayed  image  and  the 
incidence  of  phosphor  dots  and 
holes  in  the  shadow  mask  or 
aperture  grille. 

Native  resolution:  The  fixed 
pixel  resolution  of  an  LCD  flat 


panel,  in  other  words  the  number 
of  liquid  crystal  triads  in  the 
display.  Because  of  the  inflexible 
nature  of  a  flat  panel's 
resolution,  image  quality  suffers 
dramatically  at  anything  other 
than  its  native  resolution. 

OSD  (on-screen  display): 
The  digital  menu  system  that 
most  modern  monitors  sport, 
giving  a  control  menu  overlaid  on 
the  screen  itself. 

Passive  matrix:  0  Id er  and 
less  effective  type  of  liquid  crystal 
display  that  suffers  from  poor 
pixel  response  times,  leading 
to  excessive  smearing  of 
moving  images. 

Persistence  of  vision:  The 


phenomenon  in  humans  that 
allows  us  to  perceive  movement 
from  a  quick  succession  of  still 
images.  CRTs  relyto  some  extent 
on  persistence  of  vision  in 
tandem  with  the  chemical 
persistenceof  phosphor  to 
give  the  illusion  that  the  image 
is  stable. 

Pixel:  Short  for  picture  element, 
thesmallest  part  of  an  image. 
Colour  pixels  in  CRT  monitors 
are  composed  of  red,  green  and 
blue  phosphor  dots,  whereas  in 
LCD  panels  are  composed  of  the 
light  from  the  fluorescent 
backlight  passing  through  red, 
green  and  bluefilters. 


Phosphor:  Chemical  used  to 
turn  the  energy  from  a  CRT's 
electron  beam  into  visible  light. 
Different  additives  to  the 
phosphor  are  used  to  produce 
red,  green  and  blue  light  for  a 
full-colour  display. 

Resolution:  In  this  context,  the 
number  of  pixels  an  image  is 
composed  of.  Typical  minimum 
recommended  resolution  fora 
Windowssystemona  17in 
monitor  is  1,024  x768.  The  best 
CRT  monitors  will  manage  1,800 
xl,440  and  still  beusable.  Also 
refers  to  the  sharpness  of  a 
monitor's  image. 

Refresh  rate:  Expressed  in  Hz, 
thenumberoftimes  per  second  a 


display  is  repainted  or  updated. 

M  inimum  refresh  rate  to  avoid 
noticeableflicker  with  CRTs  is 
accepted  to  be72Hz.  LCDs  don't 
suffer  from  flicker. 

Shadow  mask:  The  earliest 
method  of  sharpening  the  profile 
of  a  monitor's  electron  beam  to 
improvedefinition  and  avoid 
colour  purity  problems.  Consists 
of  a  perforated  metal  sheet 
placed  behind  the  screen.  Largely 
superseded  by  aperture-grille 
technology. 

Short/medium  persistence: 

Types  of  phosphor  used  in  CRT 
monitors.  Theterm  refers  to  the 
length  of  time  the  phosphor 
glows  after  the  electron  beam  has 
moved  away.  H  igher  refresh  rates 
in  modern  monitors  means 
shorter  persistence  phosphors 
can  be  used. 

Slot  mask:  A  variation  on  the 
shadow  mask  that  uses  vertical 
slots  rather  than  round  holes, 
giving  some  of  the  advantages  of 
an  aperture  grille. 

TFT  (thin-film  transistor): 
The  most  common  type  of  active 
matrixliquid  crystal  display. 
Transistors  areformed  by  etching 
a  thin  coating  of  silicon  that's 
bonded  to  the  glass  of  the 
display.  This  is  done  in  exactly 
the  same  waythat  normal 
integrated  circuits,  such  as  CPUs, 
are  made. 

Transmissive:  Display  types 
where  the  light  is  produced  by  a 
separate  section  of  thedisplayto 
the  part  that  forms  the  image. 
LCDs  are  transmissive,  relying 
on  a  backlight  or  reflected 
ambient  light. 

Trinitron:  Proprietary  namefor 
thefirst  aperture-grille  tube, 
produced  by  Sony  in  the 
late  Sixties. 

Twisted  nematic:  M  ode  of 

operation  of  liquid  crystal 
displays.  Refers  to  the  fact  that 
the  direction  of  the  crystals  is 
twisted  between  thetop  and 
bottom  substrate.  Applying  a 
voltage  untwists  the  crystals  and 
allows  light  to  passthrough 
thedisplay. 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000  •  HE 


pcwexpert 


WORKSHOP 


Setting  up  your  monitor 

In  order  to  get  the  best  from  a  monitor  you  need  to  take  the  time  to  fine  tune  it  and  get  the  right  set  up 


a  Before  you  touch  the  monitor  controls,  make  sure  your  graphics 
card's  vertical  refresh  rate  is  set  to  its  best  advantage.  Remember 
that,  occasionally,  going  abovea  display's  rated  refresh  ratecan  damage 
it.  From  the  Display  Properties  dialog,  click  Advanced,  then  select  the 
Adapter  tab.  With  most  cards,  if  you've  got  a  monitor  profile  selected, 
you  can  click  on  the  drop-down  boxand  select  a  refresh  rate.  Set  it  to  at 
least  72Hzto  avoid  flicker,  but  if  you  can't  see  a  difference  between  75Hz 
and,  say,  85Hz,  use  the  lower  setting  -  imagequality  will  be  sharper. 


Aswe'vealreadyseen,  CRT  monitors,  being  analog  devices, 
aren't  as  plug  'n'  playassomeof  us  would  like.  So,  unless  you've 
taken  thetimeto  set  it  up  properly,  your  monitor  probably  isn't  at  its 
best.  You  don't  have  to  have  setup  software,  but  it  makes  thejob  easier. 
So,  before  you  start,  install  thedemo  copyof  DisplayM  atefrom  this 
month's  cover  disc.  Second,  switch  your  monitor  on,  then  go  away  and 
have  a  cup  of  tea.  Leave  the  monitor  to  warm  up  for  at  least  half  an  hour 
before  you  adjust  it.  If  you  don't  you'll  just  have  to  do  it  again. 


n  Few  monitors  have  perfect  geometry  straight  off  the  bat,  even 
using  VESA  standard  display  modes.  So,  find  the  geometry 
controls  in  your  monitor's  OSD  (on-screen  display)  menu.  The  most 
important  are  pincushion,  which  sets  the  inward  and  outward  bowing  of 
the  screen,  trapezoid  (also  called  keystone),  which  equalises  the  width  of 
thetopand  bottom  of  the  image,  and  rotation.  The  picture  should  beas 
square  as  you  can  get  it,  which  may  mean  going  back  and  forth  between 
adjustment  categories  -  only  being  off  by  a  millimetre  or  two  isn't  bad. 


Now  set  the  screen  size  -  you'll  generally  find  that  focus  and 
LS^Bperformancedropsoff  attheedgesand  particularlythecorners, 
so  you  need  to  find  the  best  compromise  between  sharpness  and  screen 
size  for  your  unit.  Use  something  I  ike  the  test  screen  from  the  CSF's  free 
CheckScreen  utility,  availablefrom  www.csf.org.uk.  Use  the  height  and 
width  adjustments  to  adjust  the  display  so  that  there's  a  border  of  about 
5mm  around  the  edge  of  the  tube.  If  things  look  too  fuzzy,  pull  the  image 
in  a  bit  or,  if  it  looks  OK,  try  expanding  it  slightly. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


pcwexpert 


WORKSHOP 


QD  QD 

Brightness  Contrast 


This  line  is  written  in  Dark  Gray  and  should  be 
To  adjust  the  intensity  of  this  line  use  the  Brigl 

This  line  is  written  in  Gray  and  should  appear  i 
in  intensity  between  Dark  Gray  and  White. 

This  line  is  written  in  White  but  should  not  app 
Use  the  Contrast  Control  to  adjust  the  intensity 


The  setting  that  almost  no-one  gets  right  is  the  contrast  and 
brightness  controls.  When  you  set  these  controls,  you're  setting 
the  monitor's  overall  dynamic  range  -  the  brightness  sets  the  lower  black 
level,  and  the  contrast  sets  the  upper  white  level.  Set  the  brightness  first. 
Turn  thecontrast  right  down,  then  increase  the  brightness  to  the  top 
whilelooking  at  the  corner  of  the  screen.  When  thebackground  of  the 
tube's  viewablearea  turns  grey  with  respect  to  theblack  non-phosphor 
area,  turn  the  brightness  down  again  until  the  greyjust  turns  black. 


M  Use  the  DisplayM  atedemo  and  click  on  the 'sample  demo 
screens'  button.  Left  click  until  you  reach  the  brightness  and 
contrast  adjustment  screen.  This  lets  you  set  the  contrast.  You  need  to 
increase  the  contrast  until  the  100  per  cent  white  text  is  pure  white, 
without  going  too  bright.  In  general,  you'll  probablyfind  thecontrast  will 
be  near  its  maximum  setting  -  usually  around  90  percent.  If  you  overdo 
it,  you'll  see  that  an  effect  called  blooming  starts  to  occur  and  the  text 
will  look  slightly  less  sharp. 


HAn  important  aspect  of  image  quality  that  affects  the  perceived 
sharpness  of  the  display  is  a  monitor's  colour  convergence 
performance.  To  set  this,  you  need  thefull  version  of  DisplayM  ate  to  use 
its  convergence  test  screens.  Do  the  horizontal  convergence  first. 
DisplayM  ate  cal  Is  the  test  screen  Horizontal  Colour  Registration. 
Concentrateonthemiddleof  the  screen  and  adjust  your  convergence 
controls  until  the  three  coloursare  as  closely  lined  up  as  possible.  Now 
do  thesamewith  the  Vertical  Colour  Registration  screen. 


Finally,  try  experimenting  with  thecontrast  setting  using 
11^1  DisplayM  ate'sDefocusing,  Blooming  and  Haloes  test  screen, 
located  under  M  iscellaneous  Effects.  Again,  you'll  need  thefull  version 
for  this.  Adjust  thecontrast  setting,  while  paying  particular  attention  to 
the  third  pattern  from  the  top  -  thefour  solid  bars.  If  you  increase  the 
contrast  to  maximum,  you  mayseethat  the  white  bar  appears  thicker 
than  the  grey  bars.  This  blooming  effect  is  what  you  want  to  avoid  when 
setting  thecontrast  control. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


pcwexpert 


WORKSHOP 

Comparing  and  assessing  monitors 

If  you’re  able  to  try  before  you  buy,  follow  these  tips  to  make  sure  you  get  the  best  monitor  to  suit  your  requirements 


a  It's  an  unfortunate  fact  of  life  that  image  quality  is  a  subjective 
thing  so,  if  at  all  possible,  before  spending  a  lot  of  cash  on  a  new 
monitor  you  need  to  compare  a  few.  However,  you  must  ensure  that 
each  display  is  given  afaircrackofthewhip.  In  many  circumstances  it's 
impossibleto  achieve  the  ideal  setup  that  we  can  manage  when  testing 
monitors  in  the  labs,  but  you  should  at  least  beawareof  some  of  the 
factors  that  can  affect  a  monitor's  performance. 


First,  you  must  make  sure  that  every  display  is  allowed  to  warm 
up  for  at  least  half  an  hour  before  looking  at  it.  Also  make  sure 
that  every  display  you  look  at  is  running  at  thesame  resolution  and 
refresh  rate.  Obviously,  the  best  way  to  compare  displays  is  to  have  them 
running  sidebyside,  but  there  are  points  to  consider  here  too.  If  they're 
running  from  one  graphics  card  via  a  cable  splitter,  the  quality  of  either 
unitwill  not  be  at  its  best.  If  they're  running  on  separate  cards,  you  need 
to  make  sure  the  cards  are  identical  makes  and  models. 


First  of  all,  set  up  the  displays  as  we  described  in  the  workshop  on 
CM  the  previous  pages.  Try  and  adjust  the  geometry  of  both  displays 
so  it's  as  good  as  you  can  get  it.  Slight  flaws  in  geometry  are  worth 
noting,  but  for  most  users  aspects  such  as  sharpness  and  colour 
performancearemoreimportant,  so  unless  you  do  a  lot  of  high- 
precision  CAD  work,  don't  mark  a  unit  down  too  badly  for  less  than 
perfect  geometry.  Linearity  problems,  in  particular,  are  very  hard  to 
notice  in  everyday  use  and  don't  affect  productivity. 


Clickthrough  DisplayM  ate's  Geometry  and  Distortion  tests  until 
LM  you  reach  the  Screen  Regulation  category.  This  presents  you  with 
a  large  white  flashing  rectangle,  with  a  white  line  border  around  the 
screen.  Screen  regulation  often  gives  a  good  general  idea  as  to  the  quality 
of  a  monitor's  electronics.  A  poor  monitor  will  struggle  to  regulate  itself 
as  the  rectangle  flashes  on  and  off,  with  the  result  that  the  white  border 
will  distort  and  wobble  noticeably.  Any  more  than  a  coupleof 
millimetres  distortion  and  you  should  watch  out. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


pcwexpert 


WORKSHOP 


There  should  be  a  minimum  distance  of  half  a  metre  between  the 
C^ltwo  displays,  preferably  more,  since  the  magnetic  fields  of  one 
can  affect  the  display  quality  of  the  other.  Have  a  look  round  to  check 
that  there  aren't  any  other  monitors  or  likely  sources  of  electrical 
interference  nearby-  monitors  are  very  sensitive  to  external  magnetic  and 
electrical  fields.  Any  shimmering  or  oscillating  movement  on  a  monitor's 
display,  oreven  corner  discolouration,  is  almost  certain  to  bedown  to 
external  interference  rather  than  being  thefault  of  the  monitor  itself. 


M  Positioning  of  the  monitor  is  important  for  other  reasons  too.  If 
comparing  two  side  by  side,  make  sure  they're  both  in  even 
lighting  and  facing  the  same  direction.  If  you  really  want  to  be  pernickety, 
set  them  both  facing  east  -  believe  it  or  not,  that's  the  way  all  monitors 
are  set  to  face  when  they're  calibrated  atthefactory!  Finally,  once  that's 
all  done,  you're  ready  to  sit  down  and  look  critically  at  each  unit  in  turn. 
D  isplayM  ate  is  the  best  tool  for  this,  but  its  raft  of  different  tests  need 
pruning,  since  some  of  them  arefairly  redundant  for  most  purposes. 


HGoto  the  Sharpness  and  Resolution  category  and  clickthrough 
to  the  Horizontal  Line  Resolution  screen.  Look  at  the  Full  Res 
vertical  linepattern.  You  should  beableto  clearly  makeout  the  individual 
lines,  with  definite  black  space  between  them.  If  the  lines  merge  into  one, 
the  monitor's  resolution  isn't  up  to  much.  In  general,  you  can  ignore  the 
vertical  resolution  test  -  most  modern  monitors  will  be  pretty  flawless  on 
that  score.  Now  clickthrough  to  the  Focus  M  atrix pattern.  This  is  great 
for  seeing  how  well  the  monitor  focuses  into  the  corners. 


Finally,  select  the  Colour  and  Greyscale  category  and  move  to  the 
Lfl  Streaking  and  Ghosting  section.  Look  for  faint  streaks  to  the  right 
ofthe  solid  bars,  which  indicate  the  monitor  doesn't  quite  have  the  grip 
on  its  guns  that  it  should.  Using  theColour  Scales  pattern  (above),  look 
atthequalityand  richness  of  thecolour.  Then  lookcloselyto  ensure  the 
scales  fade  uniformly-  check  that  the  last  visible  blocks  of  each  colour 
are  vertically  aligned.  However,  colour  fading  performance  probably  isn't 
as  important  as  the  resolution,  sharpness  and  power  regulation  tests. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  EE* 


pcwexpert 


WORKSHOP 

Dual  monitors  under  Windows  98/2000 

If  you’ve  just  upgraded  your  monitor,  don’t  consign  the  old  one  to  the  dustbin.  Instead,  hook  them  both  up  to  your  system 


a  All  versionsof  Windows  si  nee  the  first  release  of  Windows  98  can 
now  support  two  monitors,  each  attached  to  a  separate  graphics 
card.  So,  thefirst  thing  you'll  need  is  a  second  PCI  graphics  card  in 
addition  to  your  primary  AGP  card.  Any  PCI  card  will  do  -  Windows  isn't 
fussy  about  chipsets.  Don't  worry  if  your  new  monitor  is  a  21in  beast  and 
your  old  one  is  a  14in  goldfish  bowl  -  give  it  a  try  anyway.  You  can 
independently  set  the  resolution  of  each,  and  even  a  low-quality  monitor 
isfine,  since  it's  a  secondary  unit  that  you  won't  be  staring  at  all  day. 


n  You  don't  need  any  special  setup  procedures  to  install  the  second 

I _ I  card  -  just  whack  it  in  your  PC,  connect  the  second  monitor  up  to 

it  and  switch  it  back  on.  During  the  reboot,  you  should  get  a  DOS-type 
text  message  on  the  second  monitor,  telling  you  that  Windows  has 
detected  and  initialised  thecard.  It  then  goes  blankand  Windows  will 
continue  to  boot  in  your  primary  monitor,  prompting  new  drivers  in  the 
normal  way.  You  should  then  right-click  on  the  desktop,  choose 
Properties  and  the  Settings  tab  will  give  you  a  dialog  with  two  monitors. 


I  The  second  monitor  will  be  greyed  out,  because  you  haven't 
explicitly  activated  it  yet.  Clickon  the  secondary  monitor  and 
you'll  geta  politewarning  that  someapplications  won't  work  with  dual 
monitors.  Few  apps  have  ever  given  us  any  problems,  so  just  click  Yes, 
apply  thechanges  and  thesecond  monitor  should  spring  into  life.  If 
Windows  rebooted  thinking  the  14in  monitor  was  the  primary  monitor, 
your  PC's  BIO  Sis  probably  set  to  initialise  PCI  graphics  first.  Go  into  the 
BIOS  setup  program  and  see  if  there's  an  option  to  change  it. 


MWith  both  monitors  on,  you  need  to  dragthetwo  monitor  icons 
into  their  correct  places  with  respect  to  how  they're  physically 
positioned  -  this  ensures  that  the  mouse  pointer  will  know  which 
direction  it  needs  to  wrap  across  from  the  primary  monitor.  Clicking  the 
drop-down  box  lets  you  select  which  adaptor  you  want  to  alter.  You  can 
then  alter  resolution,  colour  depth  and  refresh  completely  independently, 
so  there's  no  need  to  crippleyour  high-end  monitor  by  running  it  atthe 
same  resolution  as  your  secondary  unit. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


In  this  month's  HandsOn  we're 
turning  up  the  power.  We'vegot 
the  usual  dose  of  overclocking 
madness,  the  low-down  on  howto 
switch  NT  to  dual-processor  support, 
and  howto  power  up  your  website 
with  ecommerce  abilities. 

N  ot  content  with  frying  his  C  PU 
and  chipsets,  Gordon  Laing  is  now 
terrorising  the  humblegraphical 
processor.  Checkout  this  month's 
Hardware(p276)  column  to  find  out 
how  you  can  turn  up  the  heat  on  your 
GeForce2card. 

In  NT,  RogerGann  stuffs  another 
processor  in  his  aging  Compaq  5000 
and  turns  Windows  NT  (p270)  onto 
thejoys  of  processor  cohabitation. 

Boo.com  may  have  gone  belly  up, 
but  it  doesn't  mean  you  can't  bethe 
next  ecommerce  winner.  Nigel 
Whitfield  shows  you  howto 
commerce-enableyour  website  using 
thefreeM  iniVend  software  in  the 
Ecommercecolumn  (p297). 

Ofcoursethere'sloadsmore.  Ben 
Woolley  shows  you  howto  get  lost 
between  dimensions  in  3D  Graphics 
(p288)  and  Ken  M  cM  ahon  makes 
light  work  of  labour-intensive  tables  in 
Graphics  and  DTP  (p286). 

NIALL  MAGENNIS,  FEATURES  EDITOR 

NIALL_MAGENNIS@VNU.CO.UK 


contents 

258  Question  Time  282  Databases 


W  e  h  a  ve  t  h  e  a  n  swers  to  yo  u  r 
questions 


M  arkWhitehorn  investigates  the 
case  of  the  dirty  data 


261  Workshop 

Tim  Nott  shows  you  how 
templates  in  Word  will  give  your 
letters  a  professional  look 


265  Windows 

Times  they  are  achangin'  with 
TouchPro,  saysTim  Nott 

268  Windows  2000 

TerenceGreen  isstill  awaiting  IR 
supportforPalmsand  mobiles 

270  WindowsNT 

Adding  a  second  CPU  to  your  NT 
workstation  could  be  beneficial 

272  Unix 

MaytheXFcebewithyou  and 
with  Linuxdesktop  environments 


276  Hardware 

Gordon  Laing  overclocks  his 
graphics  card 


280  Office  Applications 

Tim  Nott  prefers  unformatted 
snacks  and  text;  and  Stephen 
Wells  looks  at  scrolling  x-axes 


284  Sound 

W  hen  W  indows  sounds  are 
getting  you  down,  Ian  Waugh  can 
sing  another  tune 


286  Graphics  &  DTP 

Tables  in  QuarkXPress  can  befar 
from  easy,  but  Ken  M  cM  ahon 
shows  you  howto  keep  it  simple 


288  3D  Graphics 

There's  more  than  one  way  to 
skin  a  3D  object 


291  Visual  Programming 

Tim  Anderson  enters  the  world  of 
M  icrosoft's  .N  ET  Framework, 
and  sets  a  clock  ticking 


294  Web  Development 

Tim  Anderson  takes  a  sneak  peek 
at  ASP+ 


297  Ecommerce 

N  igel  W  hitf  ield  despairs  of  'pro' 
webshops  and  checks  out  thefull- 
featured  M  iniVend 

299  PDA 

A  helping  handheld  isextended  to 
refugees,  says  M  ark  W  hitehorn 

303  Networks 

Theprosand  consof  installing 
SAN  -ity  to  your  network 


Personal  Com puter  World  •  October  2000 


[| 

question  time 

Advice  from  our  experts 

Got  a  problem?  0  ur  Hands  On  columnists  answer  questions  and  solve  your  problems 
Windows 


H  ow  can  I  use  my  right  mouse  button 
and  the ' Send  to'  menu  option  to  send 
the  file  to  more  than  one  destination  at  a 
single  stroke?  I  've  tried  putting  the  two 
destinations  ( one  is  the  floppy  drive  A  and  the 
other  is  a  folder  elsewhere)  one  after  the 
other ,  separated  by  a  space ,  a  comma  and 
combinations  thereof  as  the  target ,  but  it 
doesn't  work. 

Steve  Yentis  via  email 

y  How  about  a  good  old  DOSbatch 
file?  Use  Notepad  to  create  the 
following: 

copy  %1  c : \myf o  L  de  r 
copy  %1  a  :  \ 

Then  save  it  anywhere  (except  the  Send 
To  fo Id er)  as  N  E W  M  U  LTI FI  LE . BAT.  Now 
right  clickon  N  EWM  ULTIFILE.BAT  and 
select  Properties.  In  the  Program  tab,  tick 
the 'Close  on  exit'  box  Click  OK  to  exit 
the  Properties  window  and  you'll  see  a 
new  file  created  in  the  same  location  as 
N  EWM  ULTIFILE.BAT  -  this  file  has  no 
visible  extension,  but  is  of  the 'Shortcut 
to  MSDOS  program' type.  Drag  this 
latter  into  the  'Send  to'  folder  -  you  can 
rename  the  shortcut  if  you  want,  as  it 
will  probably  have  a  truncated  filename, 
eg,  NEWM  UL~1.  Now  you  can  right-click 
on  a  file  and  send  it  to  your  new 
shortcut,  and  a  copy  will  be  made  at 
each  destination. 


_ 

r  LI  _  J  _J 

•K.  “  "■ 

I* 

HP:-' 

Shut  that  window  after  creating  multiple 
file  copies 


Extracting  the  H  ardware  Info  tool  from  the 
Windows 98  CD 


You  mention  in  Windows,  Hands 
0  n,  p238,  A  ugust  issue  of  PC  W, 
running  HWINFO/UI  in  order  to  obtain 
Windows  9  8  hardware  setup.  I  tried  running 
this  file  in  the  way  you  describe  but  got  a 
'C annot  find  file. . . '  message.  Is  it  possible  my 
(original)  copyofWindows98  does  not 
contain  this  file?  If  so,  can  I  obtain  it  from 
somewhere  else? 

Alan  Pywell  via  email 

y  If  you  look  in  the  Win98  folder  on 
theWindows98  CD-ROM ,  you'll 
see  a  file  named  precopyl.cab.  This  is  a 
cabinet  file  that,  rather  like  a  ZIP,  serves 
as  a  container  for  a  number  of  other 
files.  Double-click  on  it  to  view  the 
contents.  You'll  find  hwinfo.exe  in  there. 
Double-click  on  the  latter  and  you'll  be 
prompted  to  browse  to  a  folder  in  which 
to  extract  thefile:  this  should  beyour 
Windows  folder. 

T he  'Stand  by'  item  has  mysteriously 
disappeared  from  my  Shut  D  own 
W  indows  dialog,  taking  with  it  the  'System 
Stand  by'  options  in  Control  Panel ,  Power 
M  anagement.  H  ow  has  this  happened  and 
how  can  I  get  it  back? 

Stewart  H  alfteck  via  email 

^ m  The  answer  to  the  first  question  is 
that  if  Windows  encounters 
problems  restoring  from  'Stand  by',  it 
will  either  warn  you  of  this,  offering  you 
theoption  to  disable'Stand  by',  or  if  the 
PC  fails  to  restore  twice  in  a  row,  will 
disable'Stand  by7  on  its  own  initiative. 


If  you  want  to  restore 'Stand  by\  then 
you  need  to  reinstall  Advanced  Power 
M  anagement  (APM ).  In  Control  Panel, 
System,  Device  M  anager,  expand  the 
System  Devices  branch,  highlight 
Advanced  Power  M  anagement  Support 
and  remove  it.  Restart,  then  go  to 
Control  Panel,  Add  New  Hardware. 
Followthepromptsto  let  Windows 
find  and  install  support  for  APM  .  You 
should  then  find  'Stand  by'  is  back  on 
the  menu.  If  this  is  not  the  case  then 
theproblem  maybewith  hardwareora 
BIOS  setting. 


Spreadsheets 


Can  I  enter  a  number  representing 
hours  and  minutes  in  one  cell  in  Excel 
and  have  another  cell  show  the  total  number 
of  minutes? 

Sara  Smith  via  email 

^  If  you  want  to  enter  three  hours, 

27  mins  in  cell  Al.  Enter  3,  then  a 
space,  then  27/60.  In  the  other  cell  enter 
=C0NVERT(A1,  "hr/’mn") 

This  will  give  the  correct  answer,  207.  Just 
ignore  whatever  displays  in  cell  Al.  It  can 
be  3.45  if  formatted  as  a  Number  with 
two  decimals;  3  9/20  if  formatted  as  a 
fraction;  and  even  10:48  if  formatted  for 
Time.  The  CO  N  VERT  function  is  part  of 
theAnalysisToolPak.  ChooseTools,  Add- 
Ins  and  check  the  AnalysisToolPak  box 

Is  there  a  keyboard  shortcut  for 
jumping  from  a  cell  on  one  worksheet 
to  the  same  cell  on  other  worksheets  in  an 
Excel  workbook? 

Ron  Bigden  via  email 

□  Group  the  sheets  by  right-clicking 
on  a  tab  and  choosing  Select  All 
Sheets.  Or  hold  down  Ctrl  &  Page  Up  or 
Page  Down  to  choose  other  sheets. 

Using  Lotus  1  -2-3,  how  can  I  convert 
percentages  of  an  hour  into  minutes? 
In  other  words,  I  want  to  enter  2.5  ( hours)  in 
one  cell  and  have  it  display  as  two  hrs  3  0  mins 
in  another;  or  enter  3.33  (hours)  and  display 
three  hrs  20  mins? 

Nat  Fox  via  email 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


ylftheoriginal  number  of  hours  is 
in  cell  Al,  in  another  cell  enter  the 
following  code: 

3STRING(3INT(A1 )  ,0)&"  hrs  ✓ 
"&aSTRING(aM0D(A1,1  )*✓ 

60,0)&"  mins" 

(Key:  s  code  string  continues) 
This  formula  changes  the  number  to  text; 
converts  the  decimal  fraction  of  hours  to 
the  equivalent  number  of  minutes;  and 
adds  the  labels  hrs  and  mins. 


C  hanging  decimals  to  hours  and  minutes 


Word  Processing 

1/1/  hen  doing  mail  merges  in  1/1/  ord 
20001  pull  certain  values  from  a 
database .  Unfortunately,  the  database  needs 
to  hold  the  relevant  values  as  negative 
numbers  in  order  that  the  accounts  are 
balanced  correctly  T his  means  that  when  we 
send  the  letters  out  to  customers  they  are  told 
that  they  owe  -£315  ( for  example) .  A I though 
the  meaning  is  still  conveyed,  I  feel  it  would 
look  more  professional  to  get  the  formatting 
correct.  I've  tried  using  the  formula  function 
in  Word  but  with  no  joy. 

A  ndrew  C  ordon  via  email 

y  This  isfar  simpler  than  the 

interface  would  have  you  believe. 
Create  an  empty  field  (Control  &F9)  and 
type  an  equals  sign  in  it.  Then  insert  your 
merge  field.  Then  type*-l  after  the 
merge  field,  but  still  within  the  braces  of 
theoriginal field.  Hit  F9  to  updatethe 
field  and  you'll  get  a  positive  result. 


A  ccentuate  the  positive:  C  hanging  signs  in 
merge  fields  to  get  the  right  figure 


0  ne  of  my  colleagues  ( all  right,  me! ) 
created  a  Word  97  document  many 
moons  ago,  password  protected  and  then 
forgot  the  password.  I  Ve  tried  everything  that 
seemed  remotely  likely  to  bypass  the  password 
without  success.  Is  it  possible,  and  if  so,  how? 

G  et  me  out  of  this  one  and  I  'll  force  the 
company  to  buy  a  subscription! 

C  omputer  systems  trainer 
( N  a  me  and  email  address  supplied) 


ylt  isn't  possibleto  bypass  the 
password  protection  of  an 
unopened  Word  97  document. 
Otherwise  there  wouldn't  bea  lot  of 
point  to  protecting  it  in  thefirst  place, 
would  there?  There  are,  however,  various 
services  and  utilities  available  that  use  a 
'brute force'  method  of  password 
cracking  -  at  a  price.  Trywww.lost 
passwo  rd  .co  m/  msof  pass97.  htm . 


HI'm  considering  a  motherboard  with 
two  U  ItraD  M  A  66  channels  and  two 
U  ItraD  MA33  channels.  D  oes  this  mean  it 
can  run  a  total  of  eight  devices  or  only  four 
like  a  normal  ID  E  system? 

R  obert  M  orriss  via  email 


Some  motherboards  have  two  ID  E 
controllers  ( the  black  and  white  sockets  in 
the  middle  of  the  left-hand  side) 


Hardware 

I  have  an  A  sus  P2BS  motherboard, 
rev  1.02.  T he  manual  says  it  can  be 
run  at  speeds  ofuptoll2MHz,  but  there's 
no  13 3 M  Hz  option  for  overclocking,  as 
suggested  in  earlier  H  ard ware  columns.  W  ill 
a  Slocket  convertor  somehow  control  the 
front-side  bus  (FSB)? 

Steve  via  email 


□  Although  most  Slocketshavean 
FSB  setting,  this  doesn't  control 
the  actual  FSB  used  in  your  system. 
Several  motherboard  manuals  don't 
reveal  the  whole  truth  of  various  over¬ 
clocking  capabilities.  OurAsusP2B  has 
four  jumpers  controlling  the  FSB  up  to 
150M  Hz,  although  some  earlier  revisions 
mayonlyhavethreejumpers,  with  a  limit 
of  112M  H  z.  Don't  rely  on  your  manual 
though  -  open  your  case  and  see  if  there 
are  in  fact  four  jumpers! 


How  do  I  upgrade  my  BIOS?  I  know 
that  an  upgrade  is  available  for  my 
motherboard,  but  fear  making  an  installation 
error.  A  re  they  automatically  installed? 

A  Ian  G  reenwood  via  email 


yM  ost  motherboard  BIO S  upgrades 
involve  downloading  the  required 
binary  file  from  the  manufacturer's 
website,  along  with  a  'flashing'  utility. 
Normally  these  are  copied  onto  a  floppy 
disk  that  has  been  pre-formatted  as  a 
system  disk.  After  restarting  your  PC  with 
thisfloppy,  run  the  utility,  which  'flashes' 
your  BIOS  with  the  new  data. 


□  Sounds  like  it  can  support  four 
devices  on  each  IDE  controller, 
hence  eight  devices  in  total.  Intel's  BX 
chipset  features  a  single  U  ItraDM  A33 
IDE  controller,  but  modern  BX 
motherboards  frequently  boast  an  extra 
third-party UltraDM  A66  IDE  controller, 
to  match  the  performance  of  newer 
chipsets.  However,  since  the  built-in 
UltraDM  A33  controller  is  operational, 
these  new  BX  motherboards  uniquely 
support  a  total  of  eight  IDE  devices. 


I  have  overclocked  a  600M  Hz  Flip 
C hip-P in  G  rid  A  rray  (FC-PGA)  Pill 
to  run  at  798MHz  using  an  A  sus  P2B,  by 
using  the  13  3M  Hz  FSB  option.  However,  I 
cannot  achieve  the  same  result  by  leaving  the 
FSB  at  1 00 M  Hz  and  changing  the  clock 
multiplier  from  six-times  to  eight-times. 

Sajid  Raza  via  email 


□  Intel  locks  the  clock  multiplier  on 
all  its  recent  chips  to  prevent 
overclocking.  Therefore,  the  only  way 
to  overclock  is  to  increase  the  FSB. 

When  runningtheFSB  at  133M  Hz, 
ensure thePCI  bus  is  running  at  33M  Hz 
and  theAGP  at  66M  Hz,  oryou  could  run 
into  trouble. 

M  odern  chipsets  allow  you  to  do 
thisand  whiletheold  BX  chipset  can 
normallyberun  at  133M  HzFSB  and 
33M  Hz  PCI,  theAGP  divider  remains 
at  2/3  -  hence  driving  theAGP  bus  at 
89M  H  z,  instead  of  66M  H  z.  H  owever, 
many  graphics  cards  don't  like  this, 
although  some  only  show  the  strain 
when  playing  games. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


1/1/  hat  does  the  Scroll  Lock  button  on 
the  keyboard  actually  do?  I  can 't  sleep 
without  knowing  the  answer! 

H  ussein  Jodiya  walla  via  email 


y  The  Scroll  Lock  key  is  used  in 
certain  (usually older)  applica¬ 
tions  to  move  the  screen  and  not  the 
cursor  position  when  the  arrow  keys  are 
pressed.  Sweet  dreams! 


Unix 


/  Ve  read  in  many  places  about  how 
L  inux  is  very  efficient,  making  it  a 
natural  choice  for  older  hardware.  OK,  sol 
installed SuSE  6.1  on  a  retired  100 M  Hz 
Pentium  machine.  I  suppose  /  was  expecting 
some  sort  of  miracle.  Unfortunately,  L  inux  - 
well,  SuSE  anyway-  turns  out  to  run  even 
slower  than  Windows  98.  Really  horribly 
slow,  in  fact.  Is  there  something  especially 
slow  about  the  SuSE  distribution,  or  has 
everybody  been  just  a  wee  bit  mendacious 
about  Linux  in  general? 

A  ndrew  M  clntosh  via  email 


0  livier  Fourdan'sXFce  is  a  great 
replacement  for  heavy-duty  desktops ,  such 
as  G  nome  and  KD  E,  if  you  think  your 
machine's  a  little  too  sluggish 


y  The  IT  industry's  full  of  marketing 
hype.  Commercial  software 
vendors  can  beeconomical  with  thetruth 
and  are  likely  to  be,  er,  optimistic  about 
their  product's  capabilities. 

N  ow  that  we've  got  that  out  of  the 
way,  let's  get  down  to  the  facts.  Yes, 
we've  said  in  the  L/n/x column  that  Linux 
is  efficient,  and  it  is.  We've  also  said  that 
distributors  such  as  SuSE  generally 
package  for  current  machines  and  want 
to  show  off  their  product  in  the  best 
light.  Thistendsto  mean  that  the 
distribution  by  default  comes  with  a  ton 
of  goodies  that  eat  up  memory,  disk 
space  and  processor  cycles.  An  out-of- 
the-box  installation  of  SuSE  Linuxisof  an 
order  of  magnitude  far  greater  than  any 


Windows  9xdistribution,  but  because  it's 
modular,  if  you  know  what  you'redoing, 
you  can  strip  it  down. 

For  example,  your  SuSE  Linux 
installation  is  probably  running  the 
mighty  Apache  web  server.  Remove  it: 

( rpm  -e  apache) 

If  you  must  have  a  web  server,  install  a 
nouvelle  cuisine  equivalent  such  asjef 
Poskanzer's  95KB  of  code  (www.acme. 
com/software/micro_httpd),  and  excise 
the  KDE  Desktop.  It's  great,  but  it's  a 
resource  hog.  Lightweight  substitutes  are 
BlackBoxfhttp:// blackbox.alug.org)  or 
XFce  (see  this  month's  HandsOn,  Unix 
column  for  more). 


Graphics  and  DTP 


is  there  any  way  to  put  crop  marks  on 
a  PDF  file? 

Mike  Peer  via  email 


yl  assumeyou  mean  oncethefile 
has  been  created.  You  can  include 
crop  marks  on  a  PDF  by  specifying  them 
in  theoutput  dialog  boxof  your 
application  when  you  createthe 
PostScript  file  for  distillation. 

The  Enfocus  Pitstop  4  plug-in  will 
allow  you  to  add  crop  marks  to  an 
existing  PDF  document.  It  also  lets  you 
makeglobal  changes  to  PDFsand  adds 
new  tools  to  thetoolboxthat  provide 
enhanced  editing  of  text  and  graphics  in 
a  PDF.  Get  a  demo  at  www.enfocus.com. 


E  nfocus'  Pitstop  plug-in  allows  you  to  make 
changes  to  your  PD  F  files 


1/1/  e  recently  produced  a  brochure  with 
a  small  selection  of  product  photos.  To 
keep  the  cost  down  it  was  decided  to  print  in 
two  colours.  1/1/  e  thought  it  would  make  a  big 
improvement  to  print  the  pictures  as 
duotones,  rather  than  black  and  white.  W  e 
used  Q  uark  Xpress 3.32  for  the  layout  and 
the  duotones  were  done  in  Photoshop  4. 

When  the  job  was  printed,  though,  we 
were  very  disappointed  in  the  quality  of  the 
pictures.  0  n  screen  we  had  produced  gentle 


sepia-coloured  images,  but  the  printed  result 
was  dark  and  heavy  and  you  could  hardly  see 
the  sepia  colour.  Is  it  just  bad  printing  or  did 
we  do  something  wrong  in  Photoshop? 

M  iles  E  merson  via  email 


□  The  problem  is  more  likely  to  lie  in 
the  separation  setup  in  Xpress, 
than  with  your  printer  or  Photoshop. 
When  you  specifyaspot  colour  in  Quark 
Xpress  3.32,  the  default  screen  anglefor 
printing  is  black.  If  your  other  colour  is 
also  black  this  means  the  halftone  dots  in 
duotone  pictures  will  print  on  top  of  one 
another.  This  is  what  is  causing  the  dark, 
muddy  effect  -  the  sepia-coloured  dots 
are  printing  on  top  of  the  black  ones.  Set 
the  screen  values  in  the  Edit  Colour  dialog 
boxto  one  of  the  other  process  colours 
and  you  should  see  a  big  improvement  in 
the  quality  of  your  duotones. 


Sound 

I  have  recently  installed  D  irectX  6 
over  D  irectX  5 .  H  owever,  I  now  need  to 
record  sound  using  a  microphone  but  cannot  do 
this  due  to  D  irectX.  A  fter  pressing  R  estore 
A  udio  D  rivers  at  the  A  dd/R  emove  Programs 
panel  for  D  irectX 6, 1  still  cannot  record.  I  then 
tried  removing  dsound.  vxd  and  some  other 
drivers  in  the  W  indows  system,  dsound.  dll  will 
not  budge,  however,  because  it  is  being  used  by 
W  indows.  C  an  you  tell  me  how  to  remove  all 
traces  of  Direct  Sound  from  my  system  and 
restore  normal  recording? 

FC  via  email 


□  First,  check  that  the  microphone 
level  is  set  correctly  in  your  sound 
card's  mixer  applet  and  that  the  M  ute 
button  is  disabled.  If  everything  is  OK,  go 
to  Control  Panel,  double-click  on  M  ulti- 
media  and  select  the  Audio  tab.  M  ake 
sure  that  your  sound  card  is  selected  in 
the  Recording,  Preferred  Device  window. 

You  should  install  the  latest  version  of 
DirectX,  version  7,  as  there  may  have 
been  a  compatibility  problem  between 
version  6  and  your  sound  card's  drivers. 
It's  generally  not  a  good  idea  to  manually 
tryto  removecomplexinstallssuch  as 
D  i  rectX  fro  m  yo  u  r  system  a s  t h  i  s  m  ay 
make  your  computer  unstable. 


CONTACTS 

All  of  our  experts  welcome  your  queries, 
simply  respond  to  the  appropriate  address  at 
the  end  of  their  Hands  On  columns. 


I]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Letters  of  distinction 


Tim  Nott  shows  you  how  to  project  a  professional  image  by  making  use  of  templates  in  Word 


Despite  the  steady  march 
of  electronic  mail, 
running  any  kind  of 
business  still  involves 
writing  a  lot  of  letters. 
Word  templates  provide  an  ideal  way  of 
making  this  process  painless  and  quick. 
Theyalso  add  a  professional  uniformity 
to  your  corporate  identity,  even  if  you're 
a  sole  trader  rather  than  a  large 
organisation.  M  icrosoft  provides  letter 
templates  -  and  a  rather  erratic  Wizard  - 
with  Word,  butthesearedrearyand  not 
suitablefor  personal  or  small-business 
use.  Also,  theTimes  N ew  Roman  and 
Arial  fonts  used  in  Word's  built-in  styles 
are  designed  primarily  for  legibility  on 
screen,  rather  than  paper.  Other  fonts 
can  bring  a  more  subtle  and  personalised 
appearance  to  your  correspondence. 

This  workshop  is  aimed  at  the  small- 
business  user, 
although  the 
techniques  apply 
equallyto  private 
correspondence.  If 
you  write  a  lot  of 
letters,  it's  worth 
taking  time  to  get 
the  template  right, 
asthetimeinvested 
will  be  repaid  many 
times  over. 


-  -  ^  * . 


u^ira^  1 
•  *»  »  *■ 


1“  *  r  i1. 


HATBURY  DELACROIX 

_ ^  _ 


.  M  | 

'vmm 


-.wr  |a  t- 


"fSJ 


..u  .~i 


Well-planned 
templates  will  give 
your  business 
letters  a  consistent 
and  professional 
look  and  feel  as 
well  as  saving  you 
time  by  formatting 
the  elements 
automatically 


We'll  show  you  howto 
create  styles  that  automate  the 
formatting  of  the  elements  of  a 
letter;  manipulate  text  to  create 
a  professional-looking 
letterhead;  include  graphic 
elements  without  using  up  all 
your  disk  space;  lineup  address 
blocks  for  window  envelopes 
and  how  to  add  the  current 
date  automatically.  We've 
included  a  short  VBA  macro 
that  saves  you  having  to  trudge 
down  through  nested  folders 
when  you  first  save  a  letter  and 
means  you'll  never  have  to 
endure  the  Office  Assistant 
remarking  that  'It  looks  like 
you're  writing  a  letter...' 

Although  this  workshop 
was  written  using  Word  2000, 
nearly  everything  in  it  applies  to 
Word  97,  except  that  some 
dialogs  are  different  and  the  VBA  codeto 
remove  the  Office  Assistant  has  not  been 
tested  in  that  version.  The  majority  of  the 
steps  will  also  work  in  Word  6  and  7,  as 
the  basic  principles  of  templates  and 
styles  have  remained  unchanged. 

Fun  with  templates 

Word's  Autotext  feature  saves  you  having 
to  type  the  same  thing  over  and  over 


Graphicstroubleshootingtips 


fyourgraphicsdon't 
appear  in  theright  placeor 
at  all,  check  thefollowing: 

•  You  arein  Print  Layout  view 

•  I  n  Tools,  0  ptions,  View  you 
haveDrawingsticked 

•  Ditto  Pictureplaceholders 
areunticked 

•  Ditto  Field  codes  unticked 

•  Check  the  link  (Edit,  Links) 

-  click  theChange Source 
button  and  go  tothefileagain 

•  Therecan  bea  problem  if 
thegraphic  resides  in  thesame 
folder  asthetemplate-  Word 
will  onlyinsertthefilename, 


not  thepath,  into  thefile.  This 
can  berectified  byeditingthe 
field  asdescri bed  below. 

If  your  graphics aresaved  in 
each  document,  a  one-page 
letter  may  behundredsof 
kilobytes  and  theEdit,  Links 
menu  item  will  be  grayed  out. 
Trythefollowing: 

•  Deletethepictureand  insert 
it  agai  n,  taki  ng  carethat  the 
'Link to  File'option  ischosen 
(Word  2000)  or  the'Link  to 
File'  box  isticked  and  the'Save 
with  document' box  is 
unticked  (Word  97) 


•  M  akesureyou  haven't 
changed  the'ln  linewith  text' 
option  (step  eight  in  the 
workshop)- this  can  make 
Word  spontaneouslyembed, 
rather  than  link,  thefile 

•  Check  thelinked  picture's 
field  codeappearswhen  you 
pre5sAlt&  F9.Thisshould  be 
oftheform 

{INCLUDEPICTURE  ✓ 

"E  :  Wmy  f  o  Ider  W 
subfolderWpicture.^ 
tif"  \d  \*  ✓ 
MERGEF0RMAT} 

(Key:  s  code  string  continues) 


The\d  switch  links,  rather 
than  includes, thepicture- 
notethereshould  bequotes 
round  thefilepath  and  the 
latter  should  contain  double 
backslashes 

•  T  ry  inserting  thelink 
directly  asafield  (Insert,  Field, 
Links  and  References, 
IncludePicture) 

•  Dotheresizingand  image 
processing  in  the  program 
that  created  thegraphic 

•  Check  that  the'Savepreview 
picture' option  is  unticked  in 
File,  Properties,  Summary. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


workshop:  word 


Step-by-step  guide  to  creating  Word  templates 


1  Thefirst  step  isto  createa  new 
template  based  on  the  'Blank 

2 

The  next  stage  is  to  create  the  styles. 

From  the  Format,  Styles  menu, 

3 

Document'  template.  Although  this  will  be 
blank,  it  will  have  available  all  the  styles, 
macros,  autotext  and  toolbars  that  have  been 
saved  in  theglobal  template  Normal. dot. 

Save  this  with  an  appropriate  name  in  the 
folder  where  N  ormal.dot  and  other  templates 
are  stored.  Note  that  if  your  N  ormal.dot  is  in 
a  mess,  you  can  rename  it  and  Word  will 
create  a  mint-condition  replacement. 


choose 'User-defined  styles'  from  the  list  box. 
As  you  haven't  yet  defined  any,  this  will 
produce  an  empty  list  of  styles  above.  Click  on 
the  New  button  and  type  in  a  nameforthe 
style.  'Bod/ will  betheprimarystyleinthe 
letter;  it  should  be  a  paragraph  style,  based 
on  normal,  followed  by  itself.  You  don't  need 
to  'Add  to  template'  and  should  not 
'Automatically  update'. 


N  ow  comes  the  creative  bit.  We  chose 
Garamond  asthefontand  kept  the 
rest  simple.  The 'keep  lines  together' option 
ensures  that  a  paragraph  doesn't  breakover  a 
page  and  the  Space  after  gives  a  blank  line 
between  paragraphs.  To  change  a  style  you  go 
to  Format,  Style,  select  the  Style,  then  M  odify, 
Format  -  this  last  gives  a  menu  of  options  you 
can  change.  M  akesurethat  the  language  is 
set  correctly  for  your  location. 


N  ow  to  add  a  graphic.  What  you 
don'twantto  do  is  store  the  graphic 

8 

Having  used  the 'handles'  to  size  the 
picture,  right-click  on  the  picture,  then 

9 

in  every  single  letter  you  save,  which  would  be 
a  waste  of  disk  space.  Instead,  insert  a  link  to 
the  graphic.  Word  97  has  checkboxes  on  the 
Insert,  Picture,  From  File...  dialog,  but  Word 
2000  keeps  the  option  tucked  away  in  a 
hidden  menu  within  the 'Insert'  button. 


Format.  On  the  Layout  tab,  make  sure 'In  line 
with  text'  is  selected.  You  can  position  the 
graphic  by  left,  centre  or  right-aligning  it,  and 
'pushing'  it  around  with  carriage  returns  and 
tabs.  Fora  more  sophisticated  solution,  insert 
the  picture  link  into  a  Text  Boxfsee  next  step), 
which  can  then  be  manipulated  directly  or  via 
a  dialog. 


Createatextboxto  hold  the  address. 
Fora  normal  DL  window  envelope  this 
starts  5cm  from  the  top  and  3cm  from  the  left 
of  the  page  -  the  easiest  way  is  to  d  raw  it 
roughly  in  position,  then  right-click,  Format. 
From  the  Layout  tab,  choose  Square,  then 
go  to  the  Advanced  options  to  set  the 
position  absolutely  from  the  Page  or  M  argin. 
Then  go  to  the  Colours  and  Lines  tab  to  set 
the  LineColour  to  'No  Line' -this  gets  rid 
of  the  border. 


again,  such  as 'Yours  sincerely,'  or 'Our 
terms  of  payment  are  blah  blah'.  The 
beautyofthisisthatyou  can  add 
Autotext  items  whenever  you  are  editing 
a  document  based  on  thetemplate-  you 
don't  have  to  be  editing  the  template 
itself.  Just  select  the  text,  go  to  Insert, 
Autotext,  Autotext...  then  type  a  suitable 
abbreviation  into  the  'Autotext  Entries 


box',  making  sure  that  your  template  is 
selected  in  the  'Look  in'  box  Another 
good  feature  of  Autotext  is  that,  unlike 
Autocorrect,  it  doesn't  take  you  by 
surprise-  you  have  to  press  F3  after 
typing  the  abbreviation,  or  if  you  have 
Autocomplete  turned  on,  press  Enter 
when  the  text  appears  in  a  Tooltip  box 
We've  not  covered  automating  the 


entryoftheaddress,  asthat  would  take 
a  lot  of  space.  There  are  various 
methods,  depending  whether  you  use 
the  Windows  Personal  Address  Book, 

0  utlook,  Schedule  or  a  third-party 
contact  manager. 

Some  methods,  especially  those 
involving  0  utlook,  can  take  more  effort 
than  typing  the  address  in  manuallyand 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Since  styles  can  include  a  variety  of 
options,  you  may  well  want  to  create 

5 

Now  you  can  start  on  the  actual 
layout,  so  switch  to  page  layout  view. 

6 

more  -  such  as  indented  paragraphs,  bulleted 
or  numbered  lists,  text  with  a  border, 
emphasised  paragraphs  and  so  on.  It  really 
depends  on  your  own  requirements,  but  if  you 
set  up  these  styles  now,  rather  than  apply 
piecemeal  formatting  to  each  letter,  you'll 
savea  lot  of  timeand  achievea  professionally 
consistent  lookto  your  correspondence. 


We've  left  the  page  margins  at  the  defaults,  as 
a  3.17cm  (1.25in)  sidemargin  with  2.54cm 
(lin)  top  and  bottom  gives  good  proportions, 
although  it's  easy  enough  to  change  thisfrom 
File,  Page  Setup.  Check  that  the  paper  size  is 
correct,  usually  A4  in  Europe,  and  that  it  is  set 
to  portrait  orientation. 


Thecompanynameisset  in  24point 
Copperplate,  then  thecharacter 
spacing  adjusted  so  it  fills  theavailable  width 
exactly.  The  address  line  below  is  condensed  - 
both  area  matter  of  trial  and  error.  Word's 
treatment  of  borders  using  thetoolbar  is,  to 
say  the  least,  idiosyncratic,  so  the  address  line 
-which  is  a  paragraph  in  itself  -  had  its  top 
and  bottom  borders  set  from  the  Format, 
Borders  and  Shading  dialog. 


1  Next  you  want  the  date  automatically 

1  inserted  for  each  letter  you  write. 

11 

Add  whatever  else  you  want,  and 
make  sure  the  address  boxand  the 

12 

There  are  several  ways  to  do  this  -  and  also 
several  ways  to  get  it  wrong.  The  simplest  way 
is  to  Insert,  Field,  Date  and  Time,  CreateDate 
-  hit  the  Options  button  to  get  a  choice  of 
formats.  When  you  createa  new  document 
using  the  template,  this  will  insert  the 
document's,  not  the  template's,  creation 
dateand  this  (unlikea  plain  Datefield)  will 
stay  fixed. 


end  of  the  template  (where  you'll  start  typing 
the  letter  itself)  are  formatted  with  the  correct 
styles.  Save  the  template  and  try  it  out.  If  all 
goes  well,  you'll  see  something  liketheabove. 
You'll  probably  have  some  tidying  up  to  do, 
such  as  adding  unknown  wordsfrom  your 
letterhead  to  the  spelling  dictionary  and  will 
doubtless  want  to  stop  the  Off  ice  Assistant 
stating  the  obvious. 


A  very  simple  macro  banishes  Clippit. 
Go  to  Tools,  M  aero,  M  acros.  M  ake 
sureyourtemplate  is  selected  in  the'M  acros 
in'  box,  type 'Auto  new'  in  the  Macro  Name 
box,  then  click  Create  button.  The  VBA  editor 
will  appear  with  an  Autonew  macro  prepared 
-  all  you  have  to  do  is  add  these  lines: 

Assi stant . On  =  False 
ChangeFi LeOpenDi rectory  ✓ 
"C:/My  Documen t s/ l e 1 1 e r s " 


there's  a  lotto  be  said  for  keeping  names 
and  addresses  in  a  simple flatfile 
database,  such  astheold  Windows3.x 
Cardfile,  and  then  cutting  and  pasting. 
Cardfile,  believe  it  or  not,  still  ships  with 
Windows98  and  can  befound  in 
Win98\WIN98_40.CAB. 

Once  you've  created  your  initial 
letterhead  template,  you  don't  have  to 


stop  there  -  you  can  re-use  it  by  basing 
further  templates  on  the  first.  This  way 
you  can  create  purpose-made  invoices, 
statements,  quotations  and  so  on,  all  in 
the  house  style.  You  can  also  have  special 
templates  for  regular  correspondents, 
such  as  regular  clients,  your  bank,  the 
Inland  Revenueand  so  on.  And  if  you 
remember  to  alter  step  12  to  suit,  all 


these  documents  will  present  themselves 
for  saving  in  the  correct  folder. 


CONTACTS 

Tim  Nott  welcomes  your  comments.  Contact 
him  via  thePCl/1/  editorial  officeoremail 

wp@pcw.co.uk. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


Touched  by  your  presence 

Tim  Nott  goes  application  crazy,  changing  the  time  with  TouchPro  and  wasting  it  with  IrfanView 


Every  file  and  folder  on  a 

system  has  three  dates  and 
times  associated  with  it:  the 
creation  date,  the  date  it 
was  last  modified,  and  the 
date  it  was  last  accessed.  The  last  of 
these  isfairly  ephemeral,  as  in  order  to 
check  this  you  have  to  access  the  file 
(right-click,  Properties),  so  it  always 
returns  the  current  date  -  as  all  atomic 
physicists  know,  wecan  change  things 
just  by  observing  them.  Theother  two 
dates  are  also  confusing,  as  the 
modification  date  often  precedes  the 
creation  date. 

This  apparent  lunacy  is  explained  by 
the  latter  referring  to  the  file's  existence 
on  its  current  storage  medium,  while 
the  former  refers  to  the  file's  contents. 
Hence  you  can  create  a  text  file,  say,  on 
M  onday,  modify  it  on  Tuesday,  and  the 
creation  and 
modification  dates 
will  reflect  this 
accordingly.  If  you 
then  makeacopyof 
thefileon  Wednes¬ 
day,  thecopy  will  have 
Wednesday's  creation 
date,  butTuesda/s 
modification  date. 

Similarly,  if  you  install 
an  application,  the 
creation  date  of  the 
program  files  will  be 
thedateon  which  you 
installed,  but  the 
modification  date  will 
be  when  thedeveloper 
last  saved  them. 

It's  the 

modification  date 
that  we  see  in 

Explorer  and  DOS  directory  listings  and 
there  are  occasions  when  you  might  want 
to  change  this  without  opening  and 
saving  thefile.  Several  times  I've  had  the 
eerie  experience  of  the  PC  clock  taking  a 
100-year  leap  into  thefuture.  I  didn't 
notice  this  until  I  found  that  WinZip 
wasn't  working:  not  unreasonably,  it 
refused  to  process  files  created  100  years 
hence.  This  problem  can  befixed  using 
theadvanced  optionsof  Scandiskto 


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momentous  Monday 
evening  with  their 
mouse  pointers 
hovering  over  the  Save 
button  as  Bill  Gates 
counts  them  down  to 
one  minute  past  eight, 
but  sadly  that  isn't  the 
way  it's  done.  There  are 
utilities  that  can 
directly  change- or 
'touch' -a  file 
modification  date,  and 
onesuch  isTouchPro 
(screenshot  1).  This 
adds  a  further  page  to 
file  or  folder  properties, 
enabling  you  to  change 
any  of  the  three  dates. 
It's  shareware,  costs 
£7  to  register  and 
can  befound  at 
www.jddesign.co.uk. 


Top:  TouchPro  -  a  date  with  destiny 
B  ottom:  H  uddled  masses  of  DLLs,  yearning  to  breathe  free 


checkfor  invalid  times  and  dates,  but 
there  are  other  reasons  to  change 
modification  dates. 

Developers  do  it  as  a  handy  method 
of  version  control.  If  you  lookatthe 
Windows 98  system  files,  theyall  havea 
modification  timeand  dateof  22:22  on 
23  April  1999  for  the  second  edition  and 
20:01  on  11  May  1998  for  the  first.  It's 
awe-inspiring  to  thinkof  all  those 
programmers  gathered  on  that 


The  curse  of  Seethru 

I  don't  know  why,  but  the  utility  Seethru, 
which  lets  your  wallpaper  show  through 
the  icon  text  background,  has  given  me 
more  grief  than  anything  else  over  the 
past  three  years  -  not,  I  might  add, 
because  of  any  intrinsic  defect,  but 
because  of  its  lack  of  availability. 

Seethru  first  appeared  in  this  column 
(and  on  the  PCI/I/  coverdisc)  in 
November  1997.  Over thefollowing two 
years,  I  had  a  steady  stream  of  enquiries 
from  peoplewho,  onewayoranother, 
had  read  the  article  but  didn't  have  that 
CD.  Oddly  enough,  it  didn't  seem  to  be 
available  on  the  web.  So,  last  November 
it  got  another  mention  in  the  column  and 
was  supposed  to  make  it  to  theVNU 
website,  but  didn't  get  there  in  time. 

When  it  did  appear  it  was  at  an 
address  different  from  that  given  in  the 
column.  Then  it  disappeared  again,  but 
much  to  myjoy,  its  author  M  ike  Strong 
emailed  me  with  another  URL,  which  I 
passed  on  in  June's  column  - 
www.  o  ne2 1  h  ree.f  reeserve.  co.  u  k / 
utilz.htm,  to  recap.  This  version, 
however,  doesn't  include  the  necessary 
Visual  Basic  files,  so  if  you  don't  have 
comdlg32.ocxand  msvbvm50.dll  in  the 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


W  indows\ System  folder,  it  won't  work. 
Several  readers  have  now  pointed  this 
out  and,  in  reply,  I  can  only  say 
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG  H ! 

Bya  happycoincidence,  however, 
while  I  was  rolling  on  thefloor  biting  the 
carpet,  I  found  a  scrap  of  paper  with 
http://solo.abac.com/dllarchive/ 
index.html  scrawled  on  it.  This  is  a 
repository  for  DLLs  and  if  you've  lost  one 
you  may  well  beableto  find  and 
download  it  here.  Ithasmsvbvm50.dll, 
but  nottheocxfile-  however,  if  you 
search  thesite (screenshot  2  on  previous 
page),  this  will  point  you  at  several  other 
sources  for  the  latter. 

Tales  from  the  script 

In  August's  column,  written  in  the  wake  of 
thelLOVEYOU  virus,  I  mentioned  some 
precautionary  measures,  including 
uninstalling  the  Windows 
Scripting  H  ost,  so  potentially 
dangerous  VB  and  Java 
Scripts  wouldn't  run. 

However,  doing  this 
means  that  potentially 
useful  VB  and  Java  Scripts 
won't  run  either,  so  if  you've 
been  using  either  of  these  to 
automateWindows,  you'll 
be  stranded.  There  is, 
however,  a  compromise, 
which  lets  you  useyourown 
scripts  without  having 
others  thrust  upon  you.  Go 
to  Explorer's  View  M  enu, 
and  select  Folder  Options, 

FileTypes.  Scroll  down  to  VBScript  Script 
File,  and  click  the  Edit  button.  In  the  list 
of  Actions,  highlight  Edit  and  click  the 
Default  button:  the  Edit  action  will  turn 
to  bold  type  (screenshot  3).  Repeat  the 
process  forthejscript  Script  File  type. 

This  will  makethedefault  action  for 
these  files  be  to  open  in  Notepad,  so  you 
can  immediately  see  what  is  in  them. 

You'll  still  beableto  run  trusted  scripts  by 
right-click,  0  pen,  but  you  won't  run  the 
risk  of  launching  a  malicious  script  by 
double-clicking  it,  or,  worse  still,  having  it 
automatically  run  from  the  Startup 
folder.  Indeed,  the  sudden  appearance  of 
a  Notepad  full  of  script  code  when  you 
start  W  indows  will  provide  a  warning  that 
someone  is  trying  to  infiltrate  your  PC. 

A  versatile  viewer 

Anyone  who  hasanydealingswith 
graphics  files  is  always  on  the  lookout  for 
a  better  viewer.  I've  long  been  a  big  fan  of 


ll  dii  Fde-  1 1 pe 


Screenshot  3 


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Screenshot  4 


Paint  Shop  Pro,  which  I  use  a  lot  for 
viewing  bitmaps,  converting  between  file 
formats  and  generally  managing  the 
thousands  of  screenshots  and  other 
images  I  use  in  my  work.  Even  eight  years 
ago,  it  could  deal  with  more  formats 
than  image-processing  applications 
costing  over  £500.  Since  then,  it  has 


L  eft:  Putting  the  safety 
catch  on  VB  scripts 
B  eiow:  T he  all-singing , 
all-dancing  file  viewer 

and  simplefile viewing/ 
converting  tool  that 
first  won  me  over.  The 
native  Windows  Quick- 
View  is  so  fragile  and  its 
name  comes  so  close  to 
contravening  theTrade 
Descriptions  Act,  that  I've 
never  been  tempted  to  try 
the 'Pro' version. 

So,  let's  welcome 
IrfanView,  created  by  Irfan 
Skiljan  of  Austria 
(screenshot  4).  It  can 
displayall  thecommon 
image  formats,  such  as  gif 
jpg,  tif  and  bmp,  as  well  as 
manyless  common,  such 
as  Iwf  (LuRaTech  Wavelet) 
and  sfw  (Seattle  Film  Works),  and 
convert  between  manyof  these. 

It  will  perform  basic  image-processing 
functions,  such  as  cropping,  resizing  or 
rotating;  changing  contrast,  brightness 
or  colour  levels;  and  blurring,  sharpening 
or  pixellating.  It  can  change  colour 
depth,  making,  in  myopinion,  a  much 
better  job  than  Paint  Shop  Pro,  and 
comes  with  a  thumbnail  viewer,  scanner 
support  and  batch  file  conversion. 

0  h,  and  it's  impressively  fast  and  only 
takes  750KB  of  disk  space,  half  of  which 
is  the  Help  file.  Does  it  dance?  Does  it 
sing?  Well,  actually,  yes.  Let's  start  with 
playing  animated  gifs  and  icons,  then 
move  on  to  wav  sound  files,  or  with  a 
suitable  (downloadable)  plug-in,  mp3s. 
Or  in  mycase,  not,  astheplug-in  crashed 
IrfanView.  I  also  had  difficulty  getting  it 
to  playaudio  CDs,  but  I  was  in  a 
forgiving  mood  as  it  had  no  trouble 


Does  it  dance?  Does  it  sing? 
Well,  actually,  yes.  Let's  start 
with  playing  animated  GIFs 


grown,  adding  moreand  more  features 
with  each  release  and  gradually  creeping 
up  in  price,  so  that  it's  now  comparable 
with  performers  such  as  Adobe  Photo¬ 
shop  or  Corel  PhotoPaint  in  terms  of 
high-end  features. 

All  of  which  is  doubtlessly  laudable, 
but  it  does  rather  lose  sight  of  the  fast 


reading  avis  or  mpg  movies  and  I  spent  a 
large  and  satisfying  part  of  the  afternoon 
watching  an  episode  of  Inspector  Morse 
with  IrfanView. 

No,  I'm  notjoking,  honestly,  IrfanView 
not  only  does  all  this  (and  more),  but  is 
free  for  ho  me  users:  commercial 
registration  costs  £6.25.  Go  to 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


P I  mK 


ft 


http://studl.tuwien.ac.at/~e9227474/ 

to  download  the  latest  version. 

Another  mystery  solved 

Whatever  thefinal  outcomeof  the 
M  icrosoft  trial  and  appeal,  the 
'integration'  of  Internet  Explorer  into  the 
operating  system  has  a  lotto  answer  for, 
especially  when  it  all  goes  wrong. 

What's  especially  annoying  is  that 
even  if  you  want  to  use  a  different 
browser  -  N  etscape  or  0  pera,  say,  you 
still  need  Internet  Explorer  installed  to 
enjoy  the  benefits  of  goodies  such  as  the 
Quick  Launch  toolbar,  graphicfile 
thumbnails,  'View  as  Web  page'  and  the 
like.  A  common  complaint  is  that  these 
luxuries  tend  to  collectively 
disappear,  leaving,  for 
example,  two  of  the  three 
Folder  Options/General 
choices  greyed  out.  This 
can  be  cured  with  Tweak 
Ul  (Windows 98  version). 

Goto  the  IE4  tab,  and 
makesurethatthe'IE4 
enabled'  checkboxis 
ticked  -  yes,  even  if  you're 
using  IE5  (screenshot  4). 

If,  however,  you  haven't 
got  Tweak  Ul,  which,  as 
I've  said  before,  doesn't 
ship  with  the  second 
edition  ofWindows98,  all 
is  not  lost.  Run  Regedit, 
and  go  to:  HKEY_USERS 
\.DEFAULT\Software\ 

M  icrosoft\Windows\ 

CurrentVersion\ 

Policies\  Explorer. 

Double-click  on  the 
entry 'ClassicShell'  and  change  its  value 
from  01  00  00  00  to  00  00  00  00.  Restart 
Windows  and  the  lost  interface  features 
will  be  restored. 

Feedback 

Colin  O  'Brien  sent  in  a  quick  tip  that  may 
beobviousto  some-  but  others  may 
have  never  tried  it.  It  addresses  the 
awkward  issue  of  moving  or  copying  files 
in  an  Explorer  Window.  Received  wisdom 
is  that  you  open  an  instance  of  Explorer 
for  both  the  source  and  destination 
folders  -  or  just  open  both  folders  in 
single-paneview. 

H  owever,  if  you  drag  a  file  from  the 
right-hand  pane  of  Explorer  into  the  left- 
hand  pane,  you  can  expand  anyfolderto 
reveal  its  sub-folders  by  holding  the  file 
over  that  folder  and  waiting  a  little  while. 


Tweak  Ul 


Mouse  | 

General  | 

Explorer 

IE4  Desktop  | 

My  Computer  | 

Settings 


0  Allow  Logoff 

Clear  document,  run,  typed-URL  history  on  e>:it 
0  Detect  accidental  double-clicks 

0HHHB 

0  Show  Documents  on  Start  Menu 
Show  Favorites  on  Start  Menu 


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Screenshot  5 


LK 

M  1 

Screenshot  4 


Henceyou  can  drag-and-drop  files  to  any 
destination,  without  leaving  the  original 
instance  of  Explorer.  To  which  I'd  add 
that  if  thefolder  or  drive  you  want  isn't 
visible,  you  can  scroll  it  into  view  by 
'pushing'  thefileagainst  thetop  or 
bottom  of  the  left-hand  paneto  scroll 
the  contents.  You  should  also  be  aware 
that  this  is  another  of  the  IE4-dependent 
goodies  referred  to  above. 

Richard  Stutely  noticed  the 
juxtaposition,  in  July's  column,  ofthe 
piece  on  Windows  Accessibility  options 
and  the  perils  of  hitting  the  Caps  Lock 
key  by  mistake.  Richard  astutely  points 
out  that  the  former  can  be  used  to  solve 
the  latter.  'In  Accessibility  Options  check 
''UseToggleKeysto  heartoneswhen  you 
press  Caps  Lock,  N  urn  Lock  and  Scroll 
Lock''  (screenshot  5)  -  then  you'll  hear  a 


Top:  Keep  this  ticked  -  even  if  you  have  IE  5 
L  eft:  H  ear  those  lock  keys  toggle 

squeak  when  you  hit  the  caps  lock.'  I 
should  mention  that  this  feature  doesn't 
workon  all  PCs,  including theonel'm 
using  to  WRITE  THIS. 

Tim  Goldingham  gets  the  award  for 
email  signatureof  the  month.  It  reads 
'This  email  should  arrive  without 
attachments.  If  there  is  an  attachment,  it 
may  have  been  put  there  by  a  virus  - 
DON'T  open  it.'  Boobyprizeof  the 
month  goes  to  Ron  Hopeful,  who 
attached  an  executable  that  'shows  what 
is  REALLY  running  on  your  computer'.  If 
he  does  it  again  I'll  tell  you  his  real  name. 

Thecampaign  for  plain, 
unadulterated,  text  email  is  making  slow 
but  steady  progress  -  apologies  to  those 
who  are  sick  of  reading  this,  but  if  you  are 
using  O  utlook  Express  as  your  mail 
program,  can  you  please  format 
messages  to  this  column  as  plain  text, 
not  HTM  L.  You  can  do  this  on  a  per- 
message  basis  with  Format,  Plaintext,  in 
the  New  M  essage  window;  on  a  per- 
contact  basis  on  the  N  ame  tab  of  the 
address  book  entry  or  globally  (Yes!  Save 
the  Planet  from  Unnecessary  Verbose 
Packaging!)  from  Tools,  Options,  Send. 

CONTACTS 

Tim  N  ott  welcomes  your  comments  on  the 
Windows  column.  You  can  contact  him  via 
thePCI/l/  editorial  officeoremail: 
win@pcw.co.uk.  Please  do  not  send 
unsolicited  file  attachments  or  queries 
concerning  thePCI/l/  CD-ROM  or  website 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


Seeing  infra-red 

Six  months  after  its  launch,  there  is  still  no  IR  support  for  Palms  and  mobiles,  says  Terence  Green 


Infra-red  support  for  Palm  PDA  s  and  mobile  phones  with  modems  is  still  on  hold 


One  of  the  aspects  of 
Windows  2000  that  is 
really  beginning  to 
niggle  is  the  absence  of 
infra-red  (IR)  wireless 
support  for  a  whole  range  of  devices. 
Sure,  Windows  2000  with  ActiveSync  3.1 
(a  free  download  from  microsoft.com) 
installed  can  talkvia  IR  to  WindowsCE 
clients,  but  this  only  works  for  Windows 
CE,  which  happensto  bethetiniest  niche 
in  the  I  R-enabled  market. 

Compared  to  the  number  of  Palms 
with  IRand  mobilephoneswith  IRand 
inbuilt  modems,  CE  hasa  minuscule 
market  share,  barely  into  double  digits; 
yet  M  icrosoft,  of  course,  has  IR  for  CE 
working  under  Windows  2000.  As  I  write, 
it  is  sixmonths  since  Windows  2000  was 
released  and  still  there  is  no  IR  support 
for  Palms  and  mobile  phones. 

Having  recently  acquired  a  M  otorola 
TimePort  L7089, 1  know  only  too  well 
about  this  problem  as  neither  the  IR 
software  supplied  by  Motorola,  nor  any 
of  the  alternatives  I 've  since  tried  are  able 
to  supportWindows2000.  This  is  really 
annoying.  The  L7089  can  be  used  as  a 
modem  via  an  I R  wireless  link  with  a 
laptop  running  Windows  98,  but  this 
wire-free  solution  simply  is  not  supported 
on  Windows2000. 

When  I  called  the  customer  support 
line  they  offered  to  put  me  on  the  list 
('it's  becoming  quite  a  long  list...')  of 


Readers' lives 

Nick  Tucker,  or  rather  hisson,  has 
comeup  with  a  nifty  tip  for  those 
of  uswho  liketo  useCD-R  recordable 
drivesfor  backup.  N  ick  installed 
W  i  n  d  o ws  2000  o  n  h  i  s  d  eskto  p  as  an 
upgradefrom  Windows 98.  All  worked 
wel  I  except  for  backu  p.  Wi  ndows  2000 
Backup  refused  to  acknowledgethe 
presenceoftheCD-R.  Nick'sson 
managed  to  comeup  with  a 
workaround  which  N  ick  deems  'utterly 
ludicrous'.  HesettheCD-R  upasa 
shared  network  driveand  voila!  Backup 
totheCD-R  works. 


users  seeking  Windows  2000  support. 
Better  than  a  poke  in  the  eye  with  a 
pointed  stick,  but  not  a  lot.  If  I 
understood  the  support  response 
correctly,  M  otorola  has  had  working 
software  available  for  yonks,  but  has  not 
yet  been  able  to  release  it. 

I  was  told  that  Motorola's  delay  in 
releasing  software  to  support  Windows 
2000  is  down  to  licensing  issues,  but  I 
wonder  whether  it's  more  to  do  with  a 
backlog  in  M  icrosoft's  Hardware  Quality 
Lab  that  tests  drivers  and  issues  digital 
certificates  for  those  that  pass  the  tests. 
The  situation  over  at  Palm  is  no  better.  For 
months  now,  virtually  since  the  release  of 
W  indows  2000,  the  Palm  website  has 
featured  a  note  on  Windows  2000 
support  that  says  (among  other  things) 
'you  will  be  unable  to  carryout  HotSync 
operations  through  your  infra-red  port  on 
Windows  2000.  M  icrosoft  has  changed 
the  way  infra- red  ports  operate  under 
Windows  2000.  Palm  and  Microsoft  are 
working  to  resolve  this  issue'. 

M  icrosoft  has  also  posted  an 


explanatory  note  on  theIR  situation  that 
you  can  read  by  searching  for  article 
Q  252795  in  the  M  icrosoft 
KnowledgeBase  at  www.microsoft.com. 

Basically  it  says:  'Windows  2000  does 
not  expose  virtual  serial  ports  and  does 
not  provide  a  general  implementation  of 
IrCOM  M '.  What  this  means  isthat  the 
Windows98  wayin  which  an  IrCOM  M 
driver  maps  theIR  port  to  a  standard 
serial  port  is  not  reliable  enough  for 
Windows2000.  The 'virtual  port'  thus 
created  can  only  be  used  by  a  single  IR- 
equipped  device  at  a  time  and  it  doesn't 
allow  for  any  error  checking. 

M  aking  W  indows  2000  more  reliable 
than  Windows 98  isa  laudableaim,  but 
where's  the  harm  in  enabling  this  basic 
connectivity  allowing  those  of  us  who 
only  want  to  use  the  I R  for  a  single  device 
and  are  prepared  to  accept  the 
limitations  to  do  so?  What's  most 
annoying  about  this  is  that  nobody  is 
prepared  to  say  when  this  blockage  will 
be  cleared .  0  wners  of  these  devices  can 
do  nothing  other  than  register  on  a  wish 


^1]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


list  for  Windows  2000  support  with  the 
relevant  hardware  vendor. 

ATi  Rage  Fury  Pro 

Palm  organisers  and  mobile  phones 
aren't  the  only  peripherals  lacking 
certified  device  drivers  but  the  situation  is 
at  least  marginally  better  with  graphics 
cards.  SixmonthsafterWindows2000 
was  released  to  manufacturing  there  are 
as  yet  no  certified  drivers  for  the  popular 
ATi  Rage  Fury  Pro.  It's  also  about  the 
only  ATi  graphics  card  that  doesn't  have 
basic  driver  support  at  least  on  the 
Windows  2000  CD.  ATi  has  a  Windows 
2000  FAQ  page  which  ascribes  the 
absence  of  drivers  to  'technical 
difficulties',  but  since  April  thecompany 
has  at  least  released  what  it  calls  'special- 
purpose'  drivers  and  everyone  else  calls 
'beta  drivers'. 

The  drivers  and 
a  detailed 
explanation  of  the 
status  quo  can  be 
found  byfollowing 
the 'Drivers'  link 
from  the  main 
support  website 
(support, 
atitech.ca), 
selecting  'Drivers 
by  Operating 
System',  choosing 
'Windows  2000'  and  clicking  on  the 
'Windows 2000  FAQ'  link. 

I  was  particularly  interested  in  the  new 
beta  DVD  player  uploaded  at  the  end  of 
May,  as  I  had  unhappy  experiences  with 
earlier  beta  versions.  I've  tried  other 
software  DVD  players  -  both  WinDVD 
and  PowerDVD  work  with  Windows  2000 


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newsgroupsforitstardydeliveryof 
drivers  -  and  rightly  so  because  six 
months  after  W  indows  2000's  release  a 
top-selling  card  should  not  still  be 
waiting  for  driver  support.  That  said,  at 
least  ATi  has  managed  to  deliver 
reasonable  support,  albeit  beta,  for  all 
the  card's  features,  which  is  some  way 


M  icrosoft  may  not  be  entirely 
free  of  blame  for  the  absence 
of  pukka  certified  drivers 


-  buttheCineM  aster  engine  that  ATi 
licenses  is  clearly  the  best  (when  it's 
working  properly!).  With  the  new  DVD 
player  beta  and  the  latest  special-purpose 
drivers  I  can  at  last  play  DVD  full-screen 
and  output  the  image  to  myTV,  which 
gives  me  hope  for  further  improvement. 
But  it's  still  very  obviously  a  beta.  The 
picture  is  generally  good  but  too  many 
artefacts  spoil  the  view  and  there's  an 
unpleasant  crackle  on  the  audio. 

ATi  takes  a  lot  of  stick  in  the  U  senet 


beyond  what  users  with  IR  devicescan 
expect.  Somewhere  behind  all  this  I 
suspect  that  M  icrosoft  may  not  be 
entirely  free  of  blame  for  the  absence  of 
pukka  certified  drivers  for  popular  and 
widely-used  peripherals. 

0  nefurther  issue  came  up  when  I 
started  using  the  beta  ATi  DVD  player.  In 
addition  to  region  locks  in  the  DVD  drive 
and  the  player  software,  we  now  have  a 
region  lockin  Windows2000  as  well. 
Region  locks  are  a  stupid  idea  dreamed 


-j 


A  bove:  A  T i's  special-purpose  drivers  are 
full-featured  but  'beta'  releases 
Left:  TheW indows 2000  Region Pageat 
inmatrix.com  has  workarounds  for 
W indows  2 000  region  encoding 

up  by  movie  companies  looking 
backwards  to  protect  a  film  distribution 
system  that  obviously  won't  survive  the 
digital  transformation.  Region  locks  try 
to  prevent  DVDs  from  North  America 
(Region  1)  playing  on  UK  (Region  2) 
systems,  both  hardware  and  software. 

The  good  news  is  that  there  is  an  easy 
way  around  this  with  DVD  Genie,  which 
you  can  download  from  www.inmatrix. 
com.  The  bad  news  is  that  DVD  Genie 
doesn't  (yet)  touch  the  new  W  indows 
2000  region  lock.  But  a  workaround  has 
been  found.  It  involves  deleting  an 
unknown  Registry  key  so  saving  a  copy  of 
the  key  to  a  file  before  deleting  it  is  a  good 
move.  The  information  can  befound  at 
www.inmatrix.  com/ win2000.html,  the 
Windows  2000  Region  Page.  If  you  can 
find  (with  Regedit)  an  odd  key  with 
strange  characters  as  the  very  first  key  in 
H  KEY_LOCAL_M  ACH  IN  E/ Software/ 

M  icrosoft,  delete  it  and  reboot  to  play 
DVDs  from  other  regions  with  DVD  Genie. 

CONTACTS 

Terence  Green  welcomes  your  comments  on 
theWindows  2000  column.  Contact  him  via 
thePCl/1/  editorial  officeoremail: 

win2000@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  HE 


_ 


windows  nt 


M  ore  chips,  please 

Roger  Gann  looks  at  the  benefits  of  adding  a  second  CPU  to  your  NT  workstation 


Although  Windows  NT4 
has  supported  multiple 
processors  for  many 
years,  for  most  users  it 
was  simply  too  expensive 
to  implement  -  processor  and 
motherboard  costs  were  exorbitant  and 
simply  not  economicallyjustifiable.  I  can 
clearly  remember  reviewing  a  state-of- 
the-art,  dual-Pentium  Pro  Compaq 
Professional  Workstation  8000  a  couple 
of  years  ago  - 1  can  guess  why  Compaq 
called  it  the  8000,  because  that  was 
pretty  much  its  price  in  pounds. 

Today  the  hardware  scene  has 
changed  dramatically-  not  only 
are  processors  more  powerful  and 
cheaper  (you  can  pick  up  a 
500M  H  z  Celeron  for  about  £100), 
but  motherboards  such  as  the  old, 

£90  Abit  BP6  and  the  newer,  low- 
cost,  dual-Flip  Chip-Pin  Grid  Array 
(FC-PGA)  models  on  their  way 
mean  dual-processing  power  is 
affordable  at  last. 

Whydo  it?  Well,  whileyou 
don't  get  a  straight  doubling  in 
processor  power  with  a  second 
CPU,  you  do  get  a  major  boost. 

But  a  lot  depends  on  the  software 
you're  running-  whileNT4  may 
be  multi-threaded,  mostapps 
that  run  on  it  aren't  and  to  get  the 
most  from  symmetric  multiprocessing 
(SM  P),  multi-threading  is  a  must. 

Database  servers,  such  SQ  L  Server, 
are  perhaps  the  biggest  beneficiaries  of 
multiple  processors.  By  adding  a  second 


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Top:  Tucked  away  in  the  NT  Resource  Kit  is  Perf 
M  eter.  T his  makes  it  easy  to  track  activity  on  both 
processors ,  plus  there's  a  range  of  other  elements 
A  bove:  T heAbitBP6  motherboard  has  given  many 
hand-ons  experience  of  multiprocessor  systems 


processor  to  a  uniprocessor  database 
server  that's  suffering  a  bit  from  being 
under-endowed  in  the  processing  power 
stakes,  you  may  almost  doubleyour 
throughput.  Adding  more  processors  will 


FIG  1 

List  of  available  HALs 

halast.dll 

AST  M  anhattan  SM  P 

halsp.dll 

Compaq  SystemPro  M  ultiprocessoror  100  percent  compatible 

halcbus.dll 

Corollary  C-bus  Architecture 

halmca.dll 

IBM  PS/2  or  other  M  icro  Channel-based  PC 

halmpsm.dll 

M  icro  Channel  M  ultiprocessor  PC 

halapic.dll 

M  PS  Uniprocessor  PC 

halmps.dll 

M  PS  M  ultiprocessor  PC 

halncr.dll 

NCR  System  3000  M  odel  3360/3450/3550 

haloli.dll 

Olivetti  LSX5030/40 

hal.dll 

Standard  PC  (single-processor  HAL) 

hal486c.dll 

Standard  PC  with  C-Step  i486 

halwyse7.dll 

Wyse  Series  7000i  M  odel  740M  P/760M  P 

continueto  boost 
performance,  but  the 
single  biggest  gain  will 
comefrom  adding  the 
second  one.  I 
understand  Quake  III 
Arena  might  also 
benefit,  too! 

I  recently  picked  up 
an  old  Compaq 
Professional 
Workstation  5000- 
prices  have  come  down 
a  bit  since  1997  as  it 
only  cost  me£100.  It 
was  a  dual-processor  design,  but 
Compaq  shipped  loads  of  these 
workstations  with  just  a  single  CPU  fitted 
-  a  200M  FI  z  Pentium  Pro.  As  I  had  a 
second,  matching,  Pentium  Pro  kicking 
about,  I  decided  to  install  it  and  upgrade 
NT4  to  recognise  it. 

M  y first  problem,  however,  was 
physical  rather  than  logical  -theCPU 
required  its  own  private  plug-in  Voltage 
Regulator  M  odule  (VRM )  but  a  quick  call 
to  Flypertec,  UK  purveyors  of  memory 
and  CPU  upgrades,  solved  myproblem. 
With  theVRM  and  theCPU  plugged  in, 
the  BIOS  cheerfullyannounced  that  it 
could  detect  two  processors.  My  next  job 
was  to  get  NT4  to  do  the  same. 

When  you  perform  a  clean  install,  NT, 
by  default,  initially  installs  the  multi¬ 
processor  kernel  until  it  determines  how 
many  processors  you've  got:  it  then 
typically  reverts  to  the  single-processor 
kernel.  Myproblem  was  getting  it  to 
switch  back  to  the  multiprocessor  kernel 
now  that  a  second  CPU  was  present - 
remember,  NT  ain't  Plug  and  Play! 

The  good  news  is  that  a  complete 
reinstall  isn't  required  -  you  can  upgrade 
from  single  to  multiprocessor  simply  and 
quickly.  There's  a  lengthy  manual  way 
and  there's  a  semi-automatic  way. 

Before  I  started,  I  naturally  updated 
my  Emergency  Repair  Disk  (ERD).  To  do 
this,  run  rdisk.exe from  a  command 
prompt,  poptheERD  diskinto  thedrive 
and  then  select  Update  Repair  Info. 

First,  I  installed  a  second  version  of 
NT  to  a  separate  folder  on  my  hard  disk 
and  then  restarted  the  computer  to  boot 


|]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


■  ■ 


to  the  new  installation  of  NT.  In  the 
%SystemRoot%\system32  folder  of  my 
original  NT  installation,  I  renamed  the 
following  files  to  alternate  names: 
ntoskrnl.exe;  hal.dll;  kernel32.dll; 
ntdll.dll;  winsrv.dll;  win32k.sys. 

I  then  needed  to  use  the  correct 
multiprocessor  H  ardware  Abstraction 
Layer  (HAL)  that  my  Compaq  required. 
The  available  H  ALs  are  listed  in  figure  1. 

I  opted  for  the  M  PS  M  uniprocessor 
PC  DLL,  which  seems  to  work  fine.  If  I  get 
time  I'll  visit  Compaq's  excellent  tech- 
support  website  and  download  the  SSD 
patch  that  has  its  own  HAL. 

It's  important  to  ensure  that  the 
ntkrnlmp.exe  and  appropriate  HAL  file 
are  the  same  version  as  that  of  the  N T 
installation.  Failure  to  match  them 
results  in  system  instabilityand  the 
dreaded  Blue  Screen  Of  Death.  This  also 
applies  to  those  files  that  need  to  be 
obtained  from  the  service  pack  CD-RO  M 
or  directory  location  and  then  expanded 
manually  with  the  Expand.exe  tool. 

Normallyyou  would  then  copythe 
ntkrnlmp.exe  file  and  the  appropriate  HAL 
filefrom  the  NT  CD-ROM  to  the 
%SystemRoot%\system32  folder  of  your 
original  NT  installation.  But  as  I'd 
installed  a  service  pack  I  copied  them  from 
the  current  service  pack  instead .  0  nee  the 
files  were  in  place,  I  renamed  them  to 
ntoskrnl.exe  and  hal.dll,  respectively. 

Next,  I  copied  the  Ntdll.dll  filefrom 
the  service  pack  to  the  %SystemRoot%\ 
system32  folder  of  the  original  NT 
installation.  From  a  command  prompt,  I 
expanded  thekernel32.dll  and  winsrv.dll 
files  from  the  service  pack  to  the  same 
folder,  like  this: 
expand  kerne  132 . d l_  ✓ 
%systemroot%\system32V 
kerne  L32.dll 
expand  wi nsrv . d  L_  ✓ 
%systemroot%\system32V 
winsrv.dll 

(Key:  ✓  code  string  continues) 

In  NT4,  the  W in32k.sys  file  is  also 
required.  Again,  I  expanded  thisfilefrom 
the  installed  service  pack.  I  then  rebooted 
the  PC  and  noticed  that  it  now  displayed 
'M  ultiprocessor  kernel'  during  startup. 

Automatic  SM  P  upgrade 

If  all  this  seems  like  a  lot  of  hassle  to  you, 
there  is  a  slightly  simpler  way.  The  NT 
Server  4.0  Resource  Kit  includes  a  utility 
called  uptomp.exe,  that  allows  you  to 
perform  theSM  P  upgrade  without 
reinstalling  the  base  NT  operating 


Instead  of  displaying  one  graph  that  tracks  CPU 
utilisation ,  in  a  dual  CPU  PC  you  get  a  pair.  H  ere, 
1/1/  indows  U pdate  is  revealed  as  a  CPU -hungry  task 


system.  You  can  download  the  NT4 
Resource  Kit  Support  Toolsfrom: 

www.microsoft.com/  ntserver/  nts / 
downloads/  recommended/  ntkit/ 
default. asp. 

Download  the Sp4rk_i386.exefilefor 
x86-based  computers  or  the 
Sp4rk_axp.exe  for  Alpha-based 
computers.  Each  of  these  self-extracting 
files  contains  a  setup  program  and  all  the 
files  necessary  to  install  the  NT4 
Resource  Kit  Support  Tools  and 
documentation  on  your  computer. 

Although  uptomp.exe  does  copythe 
correct  files,  it  doesn't  copy  them  all. 
Win32k.sys  isn't,  but  you  can  copy  it 
manually,  expanding  it,  as  above,  to  the 
System32  folder.  If  you  do  this,  modify 
the  %systemroot%\repair\setup.log  file  in 
order  to  modify  the  CRC  value  of 
win32k.systo  equal  13e42a- this  value  is 
for  the  multiprocessor  version  and  is 
used  when  installing  future  service  packs 
or  repairing  the  system  files. 

You  can,  however,  get  hold  of  an 
updated  . inf  file  (uptomp. inf)  for 
u pto m p. exe  f ro m  M  i cro soft's  FTP  site  at : 
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/ 
winnt-public/  reskit/  nt40/  uptomp. 

Thisupdated  fileneedsto  replace  the 
one  that  ships  with  the  Resource  Kit,  so 
copythe  updated  uptomp. inf  filefrom 
t  h  e  FT  P  server  tothesamedirectoryas 
the  uptomp.exe  program.  You'll  also 
need  to  find  and  copythe txtsetup.sif  file 
to  the  same  directory. 


The  txtsetup.sif  file  is 
needed  to  display  the  names 
and  descriptions  of  the 
different  HALs  available  under 
NT  Server.  This  file  is  accessed 
when  uptomp.exe  searches  for 
a  list  of  HALs  prior  to 
upgrading  the  computer. 

The  txtsetup.sif  file  is 
located  under  the  1386  folder 
ortheAlpha  folder  on  theNT 
installation  media.  Copy  it  to 
where  uptomp.exe  is  located. 

When  you  run  uptomp.exe, 
a  dialog  boxwill  tell  you  to: 
'Verify  the  path  to  the  new 
M  ultiprocessor  HAL  DLL  files 
and  select  the  correct  HAL  for 
this  machine.' Point  the 
uptomp. exe  application  to  the 
installation  folder  of  the  latest 
service  pack  you  are  running. 
After  this  is  done,  uptomp.exe 
will  copythe  necessary  files 
and  prompt  the  user  to  restart 
and  then  run  Rdiskto  update  the  saved 
ERD  configuration. 

Temporary  reversion 

It's  easy  to  verify  the  performance  gain  of 
adding  a  second  CPU,  as  there's  a  boot¬ 
time  switch  that  you  can  use  to 
temporarilydisablethesecond  CPU. 
You'll  need  to  modify  your  boot.ini  file. 
This  file  is  found  in  the  root  of  the  system 
disk  (usually  C:).  In  it  you'll  find  your 
bootup  options.  M  ine  looks  like  this: 
[boot  loader] 
t i meout=30 

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk^ 
( 1 )  pa r t i t i on ( 1 )\WINNT 
[operating  systems] 
multi (0)disk(0)rdisk(1 )✓ 
parti t i o  n ( 1 )\WINNT=^ 
"Microsoft  Windows  NT  4.0"  ✓ 

/f astdetect 

C : \="Mi crosof t  Windows" 

To  modify  the  number  of  processors 
used,  after  your  Windows  NT  lineadd 
oneofthefollowing  switches: 

/  ONECPU  -  this  specifies  that  only  one 
CPU  should  beenabled. 

/  N  U  M  PRO  C=n  -  this  specifies  that  only 
'n'  processors  should  beenabled. 


CONTACTS 

Roger  Gann  welcomes  your  comments  on  the 
WindowsNT  column.  Contact  him  via  the 
PCI/I/  editorial  officeoremail  nt@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Computer  World 


October  2000 


^pr  urnx _ 

■  ■  m  ■■  h  h  ■  « 

Think  of  the  environment 


Getting  to  grips  with  the  power  of  Linux  desktop  environments,  Chris  Bidmead  lifts  the  lid  on  XFce 


Is  your  Linux  workstation  not 
performing  as  lithely  as  you 
hoped?  Chances  are  you're 
running  it  on  your 'second 
machine',  which  might  otherwise 
be  up  in  theattic.  And  you  probably  have 
the  Gnome  Desktop,  or  KDE  installed. 

No  question,  theGnomeand  KDE 
teams  havedonea  brilliant  job  of  turning 
Linuxinto  a  serious  challenge  to 
Windowson  thedesktop.  Well, 
'challenge'  understates  it  -  in  my  humble 
opinion  Windows  isn't  even  in  thesame 
race  when  it  comes  to  desktop 
functionality  But  someold  hands 
(and  manyolder  machines)  don't  need 
all  that  singing  and  dancing  on  the 
desktop.  One  of  them  is  Olivier  Fourdan 
(fourdan@xfce.org). 

A  Linux  user  since  1994,  Olivier  began 
working  on  a  simpleapplication  launcher 
at  the  end  of  1996.  'At  that  time,'  says 
Olivier,  'KDE  was 
still  in  alpha  stage 
and  M  iguel  [de 
Icaza]  had  not  even 
started  Gnome.'  It 
wasthefirst 
application  Olivier 
had  ever  written 
and  he  initially 
based  it  around  the 
XForms  toolkit 
fromTC  Zhao  and 
Mark  Overmars. 

'That's  what  XFce 
originally  camefrom:  XF  was  for  XForms 
and  "ce"  for  "cool  environment".  I 
wanted  a  name  that  reminds  you  of  CDE, 
but  not  too  close  to  avoid  anylaw  suits.' 

TheXForms  toolkit  is  somewhat  old- 
fashioned,  not  least  because  it  isn't  free 
software  and  it's  only  available  in  binary 
form.  'In  March  1999,' says  Olivier 'I 
tookthedecision  to  move  to  GTK+, 
which  is  a  very  good  library,  fully  GPL.' 

0  livier  had  to  rewrite  nearly  all  the  code, 
and  was  left  to  find  a  new  meaning  for 
the  'XF'  in  the  name.  'Some  people  have 
suggested  "Xtra  Fast",'  says  Olivier.  'Xtra 
Fast  Cool  Environment'  seems  a  pretty 
fair  description  to  me.  Download  it  from 
0  livier's  page  at  www.xfce.org. 
Linuxusers  can  get  their  hands  on 


j 


Wfllromc:  Tci  nrliil  efc  rt  nr.art  barm  art  si 


■rtA  vi 


Screenshot  2 


A  hove:  T  his  is  what  CDE  looks  like  on 
IBM 'sU  nix  variant,  A IX.  T he  key 
piece  of  furniture  is  the  L  aunchPad  along 
the  bottom  of  the  screen  -  you'll  notice 
that  X Fee's  M  ain  Panel  is  very  similar. 

T hanks  to  D  ave  W  illiams  of  IBM 's 
RS/6000  division  for  supplying 
this  screenshot 

L  eft:  H  ere's  the  gdm  G  reeter,  set  up  by 
default  in  the  M  andrake  7.0  distro  to  offer 
a  large  choice  of  different  desktops 


RPM  binary  packages  from  the  usual 
places,  but  XFce  will  also  compileand 
run  on  FreeBSD,  Solaris,  H  P-UX,  Irix,  AIX, 
Digital  Unixand  what  have  you.  Someof 
these  operating  systems  -  see  screenshot 
1  -  already  come  with  CDE.  But,  notes 
0  livier:  'XFce  is  much  faster,  uses  about 
half  the  memory  of  CDE  and  is  10  times 
easier  to  configure.  That's  why  XFce  is 
also  used  on  systems  that  are  shipped 
with  genuineCDE.' 

XFce  below  decks 

As  regular  readers  will  know,  this  column 
is  interested  not  just  in  what  stuff  looks 
like  on  the  screen,  or  what  it  does  -  we 
also  like  to  know  how  it  does  it.  I'm  not 
necessarily  talking  about  the  deep  nitty 


gritty,  although  it's  instructive  to  take  a 
look  at  0  livier's  underlying  source  code 
for  XFce.  What  is  well  worth  knowing  is 
the  way  XFce  powers  up  and  what 
configuration  files  it  consults  and  where. 

The  details  are  going  to  be  different 
for  different  operating  systems,  but  the 
principles  of  exploration  will  besimilar, 
so  you  don't  need  to  run  M  andrake  7.0 
Linuxto  keep  up  with  what  follows. 

Mycopyof  M  andrake  7.0  (happily 
not  from  M  acmillan,  see  below)  offers  an 
amazing  choice  of  desktops  when  you  log 
in,  including  Gnome,  KDE,  BlackBox, 
Enlightenment,  AnotherLevel, 

WindowM  akerand  AfterStep  (see 
screenshot  2).  This  login  window,  known 
as  the 'Greeter',  is  started  up  by  gdm,  the 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Gnome  variant  of  xdm,  which  istheX 
Display  M  anager  (see Unix,  HandsOn, 
September  and  0  ctober  1999) . 

Whenever  the  system  hits  runlevel  5,  gdm 
is  started.  Well,  strictly  speaking  a  utility 
called  prefdm  is  run,  as  you'll  see  from 
thefinal  entry  in /etc/inittab,  theconfig 
filethat  controls  runlevels. 

x  :  5  :  respawn : /etc/X1 1 /prefdm  ✓ 
-nodaemon 

(Key:  ✓  code  string  continues) 
/  etc/ XI 1/  p refd  m  tu rn s  o ut  to  be  a  scri pt 
that  greps  through  the  config  file 
/ etc/ sysco nfi g/ d eskto p  to  decide 
whether  to  run  plain  xdm,  gdm,  orkdm, 
the  KDE  xdm  variant. 

SuSE  6.2  does  this 
rather  differently,  using 
a  SysVinit  script  called 
/etc/  rc.d/init.d/xdm  to 
checkforthevalueof 
$DISPLAYM  ANAGER 
(setup  in /etc/ 
rc.config)  and  run  the 
corresponding  X 
Display  manager.  Other 
Linuxdistros  may  well 
do  something  else 
again,  but  the  bottom 
lineisthatxdm  ora 
variant  gets  kicked  into 
action  at  whatever 
runlevel  has  been 
chosen  to  bring  up  X. 

Thexdm  variant  then 
runs  the  Greeter  where 
you  logon. 

Traditional  UnixGreetersletyou  log 
into  the  standard  desktop  or,  as  a 
fallback,  into  a  'failsafe'  environment 
consisting  of  an  xterm  with  or  without  a 
minimal  window  manager,  gdm, 
controlled  by  another  config  file  called 
/ etc/ XI 1/ gdm/ gdm. co nf,  pulls  up  its 
own  much  smarter  Greeter.  This  one 
looks  through  a  directory 
(/etc/ XI 1/ gdm/ Sessions)  and 
automatically  offers  all  the  scripts  it  sees 
there  as  items  on  its  pulldown  menu 
ca  1 1  ed  Sessi  o  n  s.  T  h  e  sc  ri  p  ts  a  re  of  co  u  rse 
just  ASCII  text.  So  as  long  as  you  have 
root  access  you're  in  total  control  of 
what  happens  next. 

Typically,  these  scripts  will  be  very 
simple.  For  example,  the  BlackBoxscript, 
as  distributed,  just  says: 

#!/ bin/sh 

exec  /usr/X1 1 R6/bi n/bbdrake 
H  owever,  BlackBoxis  capable  of  running 
Window  M  aker  applets.  If  you  want  a 
selection  of  these  to  appear  by  default, 


Screenshot  3 


A  hove:  A  close-up  on  the  intelligent  pager,  which  you  can  use  to 
switch  between  desktops,  or  for  moving  individual  windows 
from  one  desktop  to  another 


you  can  add  something  likethisto  the 
/  etc/  XI 1/  gd  m/  Sessi  o  n  s/  B I  ac  kB  o  x  sc  ri  p  t : 

#  modded  chb  2  Jut  00  so  we  ✓ 
can 

#  set  up  some  Window  Maker  ✓ 
goodi es  first 

wmrack  -w  & 
wmc  L oc k  & 
wmbad  & 
wmnet se  Lect  & 
wmxmms  & 

#  now  return  to  the  distro  ✓ 
script  invocation 

exec  /usr/X1 1 R 6 / b i n/bbdrake 
But  as  we're  focusing  on  XFcethis 
month,  let's  follow  what  happensto  the 
.. /Sessions/ Xfcescript.  It  looks  like  this: 

#  !  / bin/sh 

[  "x$X  FCE_DATA"  =  "x"  ]  &&  ✓ 
XFCE_DATA=/usr/share/xf ce 
exec  /usr/ Loca L/bi n/xf wm 
Ifyou'renewto  shell  scripts,  this  may 
seem  a  little  daunting,  but  in  fact  it's 
pretty  simple.  Thefirst  line  is  the 
standard  'hash-bang'  pseudo  comment 


Left:  My  tailored 
version  of  Olivier 
Fourdan'sXFce. 
Configuration  of  the 
floating  M  ain  Panel's 
pop-up  drawers  is 
easy  thanks  to  drag 
'n'  drop  between  the 
XFTree  file  manager 
and  the  Panel.  You 
can  have  up  to  10 
desktops  and  switch 
between  them  using 
the  Main  Panel,  the 
mouse,  the  keyboard 
or  the  Pager 


that  says:  'I'm  a  shell  script  and  the  shell  I 
need  to  run  under  isfound  at /bin/sh.' 
The  next  line  is  a  game  of  two  halves, 
separated  bythe&&  Boolean  operator. 

At  first  glance  you  might  think  the  line 
says:  'Do  this  AND  then  do  that',  but 
what  actually  happens  is  a  little  more 
interesting  and  useful.  It  says:  'Return  a 
truth  valuefor  the  results  of  performing 
this  action  AN  D  that  action.'  A  subtle 
distinction,  but  one  that  allows  &&to  be 
used  as  a  shorthand  flow  control 
statement.  If  the  first  action  delivers  the 
value  FALSE  the  &&  needn't  bother  to 
investigate  further,  so  it's  really  behaving 
like  an  IF-THEN  structure. 

The  square  brackets  stand  for 'test 
this',  and  the 'this'  inside  them  is  an 
equation,  actually  a  standard  klugefor'is 
this  variable  empty'  ([  "$XFCE_DATA"  = 
""  ]  falls  over  because  the  shell  doesn't 
understand  the  empty  string ""). 
Incidentally,  trythisout  interactively  in 
bash  with  a  command  line  like: 

[  x$EMPTY  =  x  ]  &&  echo  Yes 
Then  do: 

Let  EMPTY  =  f u  L  L 
Now  try  the  test  statement  again. 

So  this  linesimply  checks  to  see  if  the 
environmental  variableXFCE_DATA  is 
already  set  and  if  not,  sets  it  to  the 
standard  location  of/usr/share/xfce. 

This  is  evidently  the  directory  from  which 
XFce's  window  manager,  xfwm,  draws 
its  inspiration.  Next  month  I'll  tell  you 
how  I  used  this  discovery  to  create  my 
own  look  and  feel  forXFce(see 
screenshots  3  and  4). 

Macmillan  and  Mandrake 

So  Mandrake  Linuxis  now  going  to  be 
badged  exclusively  by  M  acmillan  in  the 
retail  channel.  Thisappliesto  anyboxed 
set  of  M  andrake  Linuxanywhere  in  the 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


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Screenshots 


A  hove:  T he  output  from  the  find  command,  with  date,  size  and  full  filename,  set  out  in 
columns  as  a  step  towards  our  C  D  ■ archiving  solution 

Inset:  Further  along  towards  the  CD -archiving  solution:  the  script  that's  designed  to  winkle 
out  a  $  limit-sized  chunk  of  the  oldest  files  for  archiving.  B  ut  you  probably  have  better  ideas 
on  how  to  do  this 


English-speaking  world.  When  I  heard 
the  news  from  M  ichael  Breeze  of 
Interactive  Ideas,  the  company  that 
distributes  M  andrake  here  in  the  U  K,  I 
was  a  bit  concerned. 

M  andrake  is  probably  myfavourite 
Linuxdistribution.  On  the  other  hand, 

M  acmillian,  the  book  publisher  which  is 
now  what  the  press  release  describes  as 
'a  unit  of  the  Pearson  Technology 
Group',  has  managed  since  it  began 
distributing  M  andrake  in  June  of  last  year 
to  develop  a  not-so-hot  reputation  as  a 
Linux  reseller.  Typical  of  emails  from 
readers  last  year,  was  the  complaint  from 
James  Winklessabout  his  'M  acmillan 
DeLuxe'  edition  of  M  andrake  Linux6.0. 
There  was  no  StarOfficeCD  [as 
promised  on  the  box]  and  perhaps  the 
strangest  thing  was  that  the  package 
included  a  bundled  CD-ROM  called  (and 
this  is  no  joke)  “Macmillan  Plus  Pack  for 
Microsoft  Office  2000“.' 

James  never  got  a  reply  to  his 
complaint  to  M  acmillan  about  this,  but 
he  told  me  philosophically:  This  doesn't 


matter  as  I  do  not  intend  to  buy  any 
moreof  their  products.' 

M  ichael  Breeze  says  he's  sending  me  a 
review  copy  of  M  acmillan  M  andrake  7.1. 
I'll  report  on  it  next  month. 

More  on  the  Command  Line 

Ges  Cook  (gcook@tempatron.co.uk) 

writes:  'Congratulations  on  a  great 
column,  always  thefirst  thing  I  read  each 
month  and  always  something  useful  or 
interesting. 

'I  manage  the  computer  systems  at 
work  and  over  the  years  I  have 
accumulated  over  a  gigabyte  of  utilities, 
drivers  and  shareware  which  is  cluttering 
up  thehard  drive  of  the  server.  What  I 
want  to  do  is  to  listthefilesin  reverse 
date  order  (oldest  first)  in  a  format  that 
would  allow  meto  grab  theoldest 
650M  B  offilesforarchivingto  a  CD. 
Either thiscan  go  into  an  ISO  imagefile 
or  just  be  moved  to  another  directory 
before  later  moving  to  the  CD  burner. 

'I  can  get  “ls“  to  list  in  date  order  and 
list  recursively,  but  so  far  only  in  date 


order  per  directory,  "find"  can  list  all  files 
and  I  can  sort  the  output,  but  I  haven't 
found  an  easy  way  to  sort  on  the  date.' 

Interesting  question,  Ges.  Isis 

certainlytempting, 
but  as  I  learned 
from  the 'newest 
file'  contest  we  had 
in  this  column 
earlier  this  year, 
the  immensely 
powerful  Unixfind 
command  is 
probablya  better 
starting  point.  My 
first  stab  at  it 
would  besomething  likethis: 
find  .  -pr i nt f  ✓ 
“%Ca\t%6k\t%h/%f\n"  |  sort 
...which  gives  output  like  screenshot  5. 
The  numerical  column  on  the  left  is  the 
result  of  the  %C@  part  of  the  printf 
format  string.  It's  the  last  change  date  of 
each  file,  measured  in  'U  nix  time',  the 
number  of  seconds  since  ljanuaryl970. 
Not  exactly  a  user-friendly  format,  but  it 
makes  for  a  surefire  sort,  using  the 
default  that  puts  the  oldest  file  (smallest 
Unix  date)  first. 

The\t  drops  a  tab  into  the  printf 
format  string,  followed  bythesizeof  the 
filein  kilobytes (%6k).  The6  hereisthe 
width  of  the  numeric  field  in  which  the 
number  isto  be  right  justified.  The%f 
that  follows  gives  thefull  path  of  the 
filename.  The\n  that  terminates  the 
format  string  is  necessary  because  the 
printf  operation  doesn't  automatically 
finish  with  a  lineending. 

I  appreciate  that  this  is  only  halfway 
to  a  solution,  Ges,  because  it  ducks  your 
question  about  peeling  off  theoldest 
650M  B  for  archiving  onto  CD.  I'm 
currently  toying  with  the  script  in 
screenshot  6.  It  works,  but  as  noted 
under  Bugs:  has  somethings  I'd  liketo 
improve,  if  readers  would  care  to  pile  in 
with  their  suggestions.  There's  also  the 
problem  that  the  'while'  loop  exits  when 
the  accumulated  size  of  thefiles  exceeds 
the  limit,  and  this  excess  could  be  big  if 
the  last  file  in  the  loop  is  big.  A  properly 
designed  script  would  assess  the  size  of 
each  file  before  including  it  in  the  loop. 


CONTACTS 

Chris  Bidmead  welcomes  your  comments  on 
theUnixcolumn.  Contact  him  via  thePCl/l/ 
editorial  office  or  email:  unix@pcw.co.uk 


M  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


1 

ff 

hardware 

Tweak  or  unique? 

Overclocking  graphics  cards  is  possible,  but  getting  the  best  drivers  is  the  key,  says  Gordon  Laing 


I  have  to  say  it's  somewhat 

reassuring  to  discover  you're  not 
theonlyonewho  spends  hours 
tweaking  your  PC  and  risking 
silicon  life  and  limb  for  often 
miniscule  performance  enhancements. 
After  the  past  few  overclocking  articles, 
I've  received  an  enormous  response  from 
fellow  enthusiasts  writing  for  advice, 
confirmations,  or  just  to  say  they've 
got  their  system  running  comfortably 
beyond  spec  without  smoke 
billowing  out  of  it! 

Jokes  aside,  it  ^ 
is  important  to 
remember  that  almost 
any  tweaking  or 
overclocking  will  take  your 
system  components  beyond 
what  they  were  designed  and 
guaranteed  to  do  -  it  may  not 
work  properly  and  you' 
probably  invalidateyour 
warranty,  so  customise  with 
caution!  That  said,  it's  great  to 
hear  so  many  satisfied 
overclocking  customers,  not  to 
mention  how  useful  it  is  to  hear  what's 
working  and  what's  not. 

So  for  this  reason,  I  thought  it  might 
befun  to  debut  a  new  section:  This 
month's  top  overclocker!'  Here  we'll 


briefly  celebrate  the  success  of  the  most 
worthy  readers'  overclocks  or  tweaks  that 
we've  received  at  the  H  andsOn,  H  ardware 
email  address  that  month  (see  below). 

Whileundeniablysomethingto  look 
forward  to  later,  let's  get  down  to 
the  real  business  this 
month,  which 
consists  of, 


nVidia's 
GeForce  2 

GTS  is  the  latest  graphics  chipset 
to  top  the  performance  charts 

you  guessed  it,  some  more  overclocking! 
This  isn't  just  anyold  CPU  overclocking 
though  -  this  month  I've  been  seeing 
how  far  you  can  push  an  nVidia  GeForce 
2  GTS  graphics  chipset. 


Thismonth'stopowerdocker! 


A  ugust'sH  andsOn, 
Hardware  inspired 
meto  see  what  could  be 
donewith  my  old  Asus 
P2B  (rev  1.10)  Slot-1 
motherboard,  so  I  bought 
an  AsusS370-133  Slocket 
and  a  Flip  Chip-Pin  Grid 
Array  (FC-PG  A)  Celeron 
566.1  tried  overclocking  it 
by  usi  ng  a  100M  H  z  front- 
sidebus(FSB),  but  it 
wouldn't  boot.  Then  I 
recal  I  ed  yo  u  r  co  m  m  en  ts 
about  increasing  voltages 
and  upped  thevoltageto 
1.6von  theSlocket.lt 


booted  at  850MHzand 
thetemperatu  re  (after 
replacingthethermal  pad 
with  heat  transfer 
compound)  wasfine. 

Interestingly,  despite 
theAsusP2B's  maximum 
clock  multiplier  of  only 
eight-times,  the566 
Celeron  is  clearly 
employing  its  standard 
8.5-times  setting.  Nothing 
mo  re  to  say  really,  except 
thanksforyourarticle, 
andthanksforan 
850MHz  PC! 

BARRY  CARPUS 


G  or  don  replies:  T  he566M  H  z 
Celeron  indeed  employsan 
8.5-timesclock  multiplier  and , 
likeother  recent  Intel  CPUs, 
thissettingislocked.  So  saying, 
sometimesyou  must  match 
this  multiplier  with  a  setting 
on  your  motherboard  or  your 
system  may  not  boot 
Fortunately  for  Barry,  it 
worked  on  hisP2B  with  a 
great  result!  Costingonly£90 
incVAT  (injuly),thenew 
Celeron  566  is  proving  a 
popular  choice  with  upgraders 
andoverclockersthe 
world  over. 


Overclocked  graphics 

We've  long  said  in  PCW  that  if  you  want 
faster  games  performance,  then  a  new 
graphics  card  is  almost  always  the 
answer.  In  fact,  in  manycases,  a  quicker 
main  CPU  might  not  even  make  that 
much  difference  in  games,  particularly 
if  your  graphics  card  is  showing  its 
age  -  if  you  haven't  changed  it  for  a 
couple  of  years,  then  it  will 
certainly  be  out  of  date! 
Remarkable  as  it  sounds, 
graphics  cards  are  the  fastest 
developing  components  in 
the  industry.  If  you  thought 
the  pace  at  which  Intel  and 
AM  D  release  new  CPUs 
was  quick,  then  that's 
peanuts  compared  to 
graphics  cards.  It  seems  like 
everyfew  months,  a  new  graphics 
card  arrives  that  offers  gains  of  as  much 
as  50  per  cent  or  even  higher  still. 

The  latest  and  greatest  graphics 
chipset  (circa  mid-Julyanyway)  is 
nVidia's  GeForce  2  GTS  (although 
forthcoming  solutions  from  3dfxand  ATi 
to  name  but  two,  may  surpass  it  by  the 
time  you  read  this  -  check  our  late- 
breaking  A/eivs  and  Reviews  sections). 

The  GeForce  2  GTS  chipset  is 
designed  by  nVidia  and  sold  to  a  variety 
of  graphics  board  manufacturers  -  there 
are  of  course  reference  nVidia  board 
designs,  but  many  innovative 
manufacturers  incorporate  their  own 
ideas,  either  in  terms  of  slightly  different 
h  a  rd  wa  re  o  r  so  f  twa  re  d  rivers. 

Board  manufacturers  that  have 
released  GeForce  2  GTS  cards  include 
Guillemot/ Hercules,  AO  pen,  Asus,  Elsa, 
Leadtek,  Gainward  and  Creative  Labs.  I 
got  hold  of  Creative's  3D  Blaster  GeForce 
2  GTS  card  and  put  it  through  its  paces. 

The  main  test  I  used  was,  of  course, 

Q  uake  III  Arena  (v  1.11),  using  the 
standard  PCW  benchmarking  settings: 
1,024x768  pixels,  16bit  colour  depth, 
16bit  texture  quality  and  highest  texture 
detail.  Note  that  my  tests  were  also  run 
with  basic  stereo  sound  support  on  an 
Aureal  Sonic  Vortex2  sound  card,  which 
typically  knocks  around  10  per  cent  off  a 
silent  Quake  benchmark. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


T he  rather  stylish  control  panels  that  come  supplied  with  C  reative 
Labs' 3D  Blaster  GeForce  2  GTS  let  you  overclock  the  memory,  but 
not  the  chipset  core 


Windows  98  scores 

Under  Windows98  SE,  using  Creative 
Labs'  own  supplied  drivers,  the  GeForce 
2  GTS  scored  an  impressive  101. 4fps. 
Compare  this  with  62.1fps  using  a 
GeForce 256  SDR,  55.3fpson  an  ATi 
Rage  Fury  MAXX  and  25.4fpson  an  ATi 
Rage  128  under thesameconditions. 
These  results  came  from  my  trusted  Asus 
P2B  BX-chipset  motherboard  with 
512M  B  of  PC133  SDRAM ,  a  Seagate 
18XLUItral60  SCSI  hard  disk  and  an 
Intel  Pentium  III  running  at  866M  Hz. 
Note  that  I  performed  the  same  tests 
with  all  but  the  new  GeForce  2  GTS  card 
a  few  months  back  on  the  same  system, 
except  using  a  Pill  550M  Hzand, 
interestingly,  got  exactly  the  same  scores. 

The  interesting  thing,  for  me  anyway, 
was  that  Creative's  GeForce  2  GTS  driver 
actually  featured  an  overclocking  section. 
That's  right,  no  undercover  stealth 
tweaking,  but  an  actual  above-board 
graphical  slider  you  can  easilydragto 
overclock  the  card !  (see  screenshot  1) . 

Creative's  drivers  don't  let  you  change 
the  reference  core  chip  clockspeed  of 
200M  Hz,  but  the  tweak  section  lets  you 
increase  the  memory  clock  from  the 
reference  332M  Hz  to  366M  Hz.  A  quick 
slide  later  and  Quake  scored  103.6fps. 

0  K,  only  two  frames  per  second  more, 
but  beggars  can't  be  choosers! 

I  had,  however,  heard  about  the 
increased  overclocking  capabilities  of 
nVidia'sown  Detonator  2  reference 
drivers  on  Anandtech's  website  (www. 
anandtech.com).  Thedrivers failed  to 
work  with  Windows98  on  mysystem,  so 
I  gave  the  new  nVidia  Detonator  2  driver 
for  Windows  2000  a  shot. 

Windows  2000 

M  uch  has  been  written  about  games 
performance  under  Windows  2000  and 
how  it  doesn't  compare  with  Windows 


98  SE.  Personally  speaking,  I  haven't 
been  ableto  give  Windows  2000  much  of 
a  gaming  chance,  since  thedrivers  for 
graphics  cards  I've  owned  haven't 
supported  OpenGL.  This  is  a  pity,  since  I 
dual  boot  Windows  98  and  Windows 
2000  on  my  main  PC,  which  gives  a  great 
opportunityto  directly  compare 
performance  with  the  same  components 
undereach  OS.  Sadly,  with  limited  driver 
support  under  Windows  2000  I've  been 
limited  to  using  certain  modest 
peripherals  for  compatibility. 

Up  until  the  arrival  of  Creative's 
GeForce  2  GTS  card,  I'd  been  using  an 
aging  ATi  Rage  128  card,  since  it  at  least 
offered  the  resolutions  and  colour  depths 
I  wanted  for  both  Windows98  and 
2000.  While  unforgivably  still  not 
supporting  the  Rage  Fury  M  AXX  under 
W  indows  2000,  ATi  has  at  least  recently 
posted  new  Windows  2000  drivers  with 


OpenGL  support 
for  its  Rage  128 
chipset.  I  dutifully 
downloaded  them 
and  ran  Quake  III 
Arena  under 
precisely  the  same 
conditions  as  my 
Windows98 
partition.  Where 
98  scored  25.4fps, 
2000  mustered  a 
mere22.1fps- 
admittedlyaround 
10  per  cent  slower, 
but  still  sufficiently 
close  not  to 
discount  Windows 
2000  for  games. 

Creative 
supplies  its 
GeForce  2  GTS 
card  with  Windows 
2000  drivers  and 
on  my  system  it  turned  out  an  impressive 
94.1fps,  compared  to  101.4fps  (non- 
overclocked)  underWindows98  - 
remember  that,  like  the  ATi  128  scores 
above,  these  are  directly  comparable 
results  as  they're  using  identical  hardware 
and  settings.  Sure,  W  indows  98  was  still 
faster,  but  not  by  much. 

Detonator  2 

The  interesting  part  came  when  I  tried 
nVidia's  latest  Detonator  2  drivers  for 
Windows  2000  that,  unlike  the  Windows 
98  version,  worked  fine  on  mysystem. 

Without  changing  anysettings,  I  ran 
Quake  and  scored  a  remarkable  103. 2fps 
under  Windows  2000!  That's  almost 
1  Of  p  s  faster  t  h  a  n  C  reat  i  ve' s  su  p  p  I  i  ed 
W  indows  2000  drivers  and  faster  than 
my  overclocked  Windows  98  results. 

This  really  proves  that  using  the  latest 
drivers  can  maketheworld  of  difference. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


Occasionally,  a 
new  set  of  drivers 
introduces  its  own 
set  of  problems,  so 
always  check  the 
reports  on  the 
various  enthusiast 
hardware  websites, 
but  in  general  you'll 
reap  benefits. 

Shame  theWindows  98  Detonator2 
drivers  didn't  work  on  my  98  partition, 
as  I'm  sure  I'd  see  an  increase  in 
performance  there,  too. 

But,  best  of  all,  I  was  using  nVidia's 
ref  eren  cedriversunderWindows2000, 
which  meant  I  could  tryAnandtech's 
overclocking  tricks.  As  standard,  the 
nVidia  drivers  offer  only  memory 
overclocking,  albeit  further  than 
Creative's  cautious  366M  H  z  limit. 

Anandtech,  however,  discovered 
an  additional,  hidden,  coreCPU 
overclocking  facility,  which  reveals 
itself  after  a  brief  Registry  edit. 

If  you'rea  GeForce2  GTSowner 
using  nVidia's  latest  drivers  and  are 
feeling  brave,  start  the  Registry  Editor  by 
typing  Regedit  from  Run  in  your  Start 
Menu.  Open  HKEY_LOCAL_M ACHINE, 
then  scroll  down  through  Software  until 
you  reach  NVIDIA  Corporation,  then 
open  the  Global  section. 

To  access theadditional  controls, 
you'll  need  to  modifya  new  RegistryKey 
called  NVTweak.  If  this  doesn't  exist  in 
the  Global  key,  go  to  the  Edit  menu  and 
Add  a  new  Key,  naming  it  NVTweak.  M  y 
system  already  had  the  NVTweak  key 
with  a  couple  of  entries,  (see  screenshot 
2).  If  you're  creating  it  from  scratch,  it 
may  not  have  the  same  entries  as  mine. 

With  NVTweak  selected  in  the  left- 
hand  paneof  the  Registry  Editor,  you 
must  go  to  the  Edit  menu  and  Add  a  new 
DWORD  value,  with  the  name 
'CoolBits'.  Once  added,  double-click  on 
the CoolBits in  theright-hand  paneand 
set  the  Value  to  3,  with  a  hexadecimal 
base  (see screenshot  3).  After  rebooting 
your  system,  you'll  notice  that  when  you 
go  to  the  Additional  Properties  of  your 
GeForce  advanced  display  properties, 
you'll  find  an  additional  tab  labelled 
FI  ardware  0  ptions  (see  screenshot  4) . 

Check  out  those  sliders!  The  core 
clockfrequencycan  be  pushed  to 
250M  H z,  whilethememoryclock 
frequency  can  betaken  to  420M  H  z. 
Remember,  this  is  in  theoryand  the 
reference  card  design  (as  employed  by 


L  eft:  nVidia's  new  D  etonator  drivers  have 
hidden  overdocking  features  that  require  a 
little  R  egistry  editing.  D  ownload  the  new 
drivers  from  nVidia's  website  at 
www.nvidia.com ,  then  run  R  egedit  and  find 
or  create  the  N  VTweak  key 
B  elow  left:  N  ow  add  a  new  DWORD  value 
with  the  name  'C  oolB  its'  and  a  value  of 
three  with  a  hex 
base.  0  ne  system 
restart  later  and 
you're  in  business! 


Creative)  is  meant  to  run  at 
200/333M  FI  z for  core/ memory 
respectively.  Like  any  kind  of 
overclocking,  it's  a  case  of  taking 
things  one  small  step  at  a  time, 
and  retreating  when  your  system 
freezes,  crashes  or  fails  to  start. 

Anandtech  claimed  it  got  a 
Creative  card  running  at 
250/395M  FH z,  which  sounded 
impressive.  I  tried  the  same 
settings,  but  crashed  horribly. 

After  much  experimentation,  I 
had  my  card  running  at 
215/375M  FH z and  a  Quakescore 
under  Windows  2000  of 
105.6fps,  just  over  2fps  faster  than  at  the 
standard  200/ 333M  FI z  settings. 

Without  sound  and  using  a  Pill 
750M  FI z,  Anandtech  scored  107fps  at 
200/333M  Flzand  110.2fps  at 
250/395M  H  z.  This  was  at  1,024x768, 
but  greater  differences  of  up  to  lOfps 
were  measured  at  resolutions  of  1,280  x 
1,024  and  1,600x1,200. 

It's  also  worth  mentioning  GeForce  2 
GTS  boards  that  aren't  based  on  the 
32 M  B  reference  design.  We've  seen  a 
64M  B  version  from  FI  ercules  and  heard 
of  another  64M  B  card  from  Gainward 
that  uniquely  employs  extra-fast  five 
nano-second  memory,  compared  to 
thesixnano-second  memoryof  the 
reference  design.  According  to  Tom's 
FI  ardware  website,  Gainward  claims  this 
memoryrunshappilyat400M  FH  z,  while 
the  good  doctor  himself  has  had  it 
running  at  233/472M  FH  z. 

The  moral  of  this  story?  While  I  enjoy 
the  opportunity  to  overclock  anything, 
pushing  cards  based  on  the  reference 
GeForce  2  GTS  design  isn't  worth  it  at 
1,024  x768  resolutions.  If  you'rea  Quake 


h.i.  wm  hp+.n  p  wi  fc  ■**■?**  h*t«iiv« 


_ 


]. 


Screenshot  4 


A  bove:  A  fter  editing  the  R  egistry  the 
A  dditional  G  eForce  Properties  will  reveal  a 
new  tab  labelled  ‘H  ardware  O  ptions',  with 
overclocking  adjustments  for  the  memory 
clock  and  core  clock  frequency-  we  got  ours 
running  at  a  2 15M  Hz  core  and375MHz 
memory  compared  to  the  default  2 00 M  H  z 
and  332MHz  settings  respectively 

fanatic  who  runs  at  higher  resolutions  or 
32bit  colour,  then  cautious  overclocking 
may  get  you  a  worthwhile  result. 

O  ne  thing  everyone  must  do,  though, 
is  ensure  they're  running  the  latest 
graphics  drivers.  Just  by  updating  my 
supplied  GeForce  2  GTS  driver  to 
nVidia's  Detonator  2, 1  gained  a  10  per 
cent  improvement  in  Quake-  more  than 
I  got  by  overclocking  my  card. 


CONTACTS 

Gordon  Laing  welcomes  your  comments  on 
the  H  ardware  column.  Contact  him  via  the 
PCI/I/  editorial  officeoremail: 

hardware@pcw.co.uk 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


office  applications 


Paste  sandwiches 


Tim  Nott  does  his  best  to  ensure  that  both  his  snacks  and  text  remain  plain  and  unformatted 


A  recent  gift  of  a  toasted- 
sandwich  maker  has 
changed  my  life.  It's 
named  Daisy,  it's 
amusingly  cow-shaped 
and  it  provides  a  total  solution  to 
keyboard-based  snacking.  Gonearethe 
days  of  crisps,  biscuits  and  those  bags  of 
weird  thingsapparentlymadefrom 
tomato-flavoured  polystyrene.  In  just 
three  minutes,  I  can  be  in  possession  of  a 
delicious  hot,  sealed  confection  of  bread, 
cheese  and  the  bolognese  sauce  left  over 
from  last  night. 

This  is  true  geek 
chic,  as  well  as 
being  an  excellent 
wayof  finishing  up 
all  those  leftovers 
in  little  bowls  that 
one  traditionally 
keeps  in  thefridge 
fora  week  before 
throwing  out. 

However,  once 
these  scraps  were 
exhausted  and  I'd 
tried  all  the  recipes 
in  Daisy's 
instruction  leaflet 
(except  the  one 
involving  tinned 
rice  pudding  and  jam)  I  needed 
inspiration.  Despite thefact  that  Daisy 
was  made  by  a  company  with  a  French- 
sounding  name,  Breville  is  actually  based 
in  Oldham  and  has  a  truly  British  co.uk 
website,  which,  joy  of  joys,  features  pages 
and  pages  of  recipes. 

So,  getting  to  the  point,  I  decided  to 
collate  some  of  these  into  a  little  booklet 
that  could  be  kept  conveniently  close  to 
Daisy  in  a  kitchen  drawer,  using  that  well- 
known  techniqueof  copying  and  pasting 
the  text  into  Word.  And,  as  always,  I  fell 
into  the  usual  trap. 

Control  &Ato  select  the  page  in  the 
web  browser,  Control  &  C  to  copy,  switch 
to  Word  and  Control  &  V  to  watch  the 
hourglass  for  ages  as  Word  works  out 
what  to  do  with  all  this  HTM  L  stuff  it's 
just  been  fed. 

Three  things  immediately  sprang  to 
mind.  First,  was  that  I  probablynow  had 


P*E 


UMr  m\ 

■ 

Tiu 

hnu 

— flJ 

O.Tirwi  Z. 

llftM  rfF>IL-J.h#r 

“1 

J 


enough  time  to  go  and  make  another 
sandwich  before  Word  would  let  me 
continue.  Second  was  -  all  right,  I  know  I 
should  have  gone  Edit,  Paste  Special, 
Unformatted  Text,  but  why  can't  you 
press  the  Esc  key  (for  example)  to  abort 
lengthy  and  unintended  actions?  Third 
waswhycan't  I  change thedefault  paste 
action  to  be  'Unformatted  Text'  while 
retaining  the  menu  trip  for  more 
ambitious  pasting  feats? 

This  last  proved  to  be  more  difficult 
than  expected,  as  assigning  a  keyboard 
shortcut,  ora  button,  can  only  take  you 
as  far  as  'Paste  Special...'  -  you  still  have 
to  make  two  more  keystrokes  or  mouse 
clicks  to  paste  unformatted  text. 

The  only  answer  seems  to  be  via  a 
macro.  This  is  such  a  simple  matter  to 
record,  (and  is  also  only  one  line),  that 
I'm  not  going  to  bother  you  with  the 
code.  Tools,  Customize,  Keyboard, 


H*n*  T- 


Top:  Plain  text  pasting  from  the  keyboard 
Bottom:  A  utomating  parallel  page  numbering 


uc 


I  L"  ~1 


h«pa  j 


Screenshot  1 


Feedback 

In  July's  column,  we  covered  the  problem 
of  running  two  systems  of  page 
numbering  in  parallel:  onethat  restarts 
with  each  chapter  (or  section)  and 
another  that  keeps  a  running  total. 

M  y  observation  that  'had  we  but 
world  enough  and  time  there  is  probably 
some  wayof  automating  that  further' 
inspired  Nicola  Bennett-Jonesto  do  just 
that.  H  er  solution  is  to  put  a  bookmark 
at  the  start  of  each  section,  then  in  the 
footer  use  a  PAGEREF  field  to  return  the 
(absolute)  pagenumberofthat 
bookmark. 

This  means  the  arithmetic  is  carried 
out  automatically,  rather  than  my  pretty 
cumbersome-  and  accident-prone - 
method  of  typing  in  the  last  page  number 
of  the  last  chapter.  As  with  most  things 
fieldy,  it's  easier  to  show  than  to  explain, 
so  cast  your  eyes  over  screenshot  2. 

Alan  Hitchin  mailed  me  with  a  little- 
known  WordPro  M  illennium  tip  that  in 
fact  dates  back  to  AmiPro  3  days.  If  you 
hold  down  the  Control  key,  you  can  drag 
buttons  around  your  Smartlcon  bars 
without  going  through  the  editor.  You 
can  also  delete  them  by  dragging  them 
off  the  bar. 


Macros  got  it 
assigned  to  a 
keyboard  shortcut 
(see  screenshot  1). 

This  isn't  just 
useful  when  pasting 
from  web  pages  -  it 
also  gives  me  the 
choiceof  retaining 
the  source 
formatting  or  using 
the  current  style 
when  pasting  text 
generally. 


CONTACTS 

Tim  N  ott  welcomes  your  comments  on  the 
Word  Processing  column.  Contact  him  via  the 
PCI/I/  editorial  officeoremail: 
wp@pcw.co.uk.  Please  do  not  send 
unsolicited  file  attachments. 


;T|]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Sliding  axis 


Should  your  x-axis  labels  become  so  numerous  as  to  be  illegible,  Stephen  Wells  knows  what  to  do 


Many  people  often 

come  up  against  the 
problem  of  having  a 
chart  with  so  many 
labels  on  thex-axis 
(the  bottom,  horizontal  one)  that  it 
becomes  illegible.  Onesimplesolution  is 
to  make  a  smaller  chart  and  slidethe 
points  left  or  right,  as  though  moving  a 
window  along  a  line. 

H  ere's  a  simple  example,  using  Excel, 
to  show  how  it's  done.  All  data  cells  are 
formatted  as  numbers  because  the 
Forms'  Scroll  Bartool  doesn't 
understand  dates.  Enter  1994  in  cells  B2 
and  B8.  Right-clickon  B8  and  drag  it  to 
T8.  On  the  shortcut  menu  choose  Series, 
Linear,  Step  value  1.  This  gives  you  the 
years  1994  to  2012.  In  the  range  B9  to 
T9,  enter  numbers  randomly  between 
431  and  850.  Enter  =B2+1  in  C2  and 
drag  that  toT2  which  will  have=S2+l. 

In  cell  B3  enter theformula: 

=H LOOKUP (B2,$B$8:$T$9, 2) 

Drag  this  along  row  3  to  column  T.  Cell 
T3  will  have 

=H LOOKUP (T2,$B$8:$T$9, 2) 
Theyears shown  in  row  2  will  change 
when  the  slider  is  moved.  But  because  of 
this  formula,  the  cell  underneath  each 
year  will  show  the  correct  data.  In  other 
words,  the  range  B8  to  T9  is  static  and 
the  range  B2  to  T3  is  dynamic. 


I  iin.i'  ■■■in 


Jar  |  Pi  rt  n  ini  | 

■  \ 

pwT" 

xJ 

Wilt 

"3 

lUBufcd  |: 

|: 

4 

|ttv  rt: 


Screenshot  1 


P*  1“*- 

!□  rfB  i  *  r 


1 1  *  m  ®  *  h  j 


b 

4X1 

JJ. 

fl J 

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FBB  Tm  111!  TIB 

ii  J 


and  click  the  Fill 
Colourtool  on 
the  main 
formatting 
toolbar. 

To  add  the 
slider,  on  the 
main  View 
menu,  choose 
Toolbars,  Forms.  Drag  this  miniature 
toolbarout ofyourway.  Clickon  the 
Scroll  Bar  control.  This  offers  a  cross, 
indicating  a  graphic  object  you  can  draw. 
Drag  it  to  create  a  horizontal  box  under 
your  chart.  W  ith  the  left  mouse  button 


ll, 


Screenshot  2 


Excel  will  not  only  change  the 
date  line  but  automatically 
adjust  the  y-axis  labels  as  well 


UsingtheChartWizard,  makethe 
chart  display  start  at  about  cell  B14.  The 
data  range  for  thechart  is  $B$2  to  $F$3, 
with  the  Series  in  Rows.  In  the  Source 
Data  dialog  box,  ensure  that  the  Values 
are  shown  as  taken  from  the  range 
$B$3:$F$3  and  theX-axis  Labels  from 
$B$2:$F$2. 

To  colourthechart  background, 
right-click  within  the  perimeter  line  and 
choose  Format  Chart  Area.  Then  under 
Patterns  Area,  choose  a  colour  from  the 
palette.  To  colour  the  worksheet, 
highlight  the  appropriate  range  of  cells 


down,  movethelittlesquareson  the 
edges  of  the  object  to  adjust  the  size  of 
your  new  slider. 

Right-click  on  the  object  and  choose 
Format  Control.  The  point  to  remember 
here  is  that  the  following  entries  refer  to 
the  left  end  of  the  data  range.  In  the  Cell 
link  box(see screenshot  1)  enter 
$B2:$P$2  (notT2  as  you  might  expect). 
The  Current  value  and  theM  inimum 
value  are  both  1994.  The  M  aximum  value 
is  2008  (not  2012).  The  Incremental 
change  is  1,  and  the  Page  change  is  0. 

The  3D  shading  for  the  slider  is  optional. 


L  eft:  Setting  up  the  control  of 
the  slider  for  this  example 
B  elow:  T he  x-axis  of  this 
chart  can  be  shifted  left  or 
right  by  using  the  slider 
underneath 

Click  O  K  and  yourslider 
is  now  ready.  It  will  shift  the 
x-axis  from  a  range  of  1994 
to  1998  up  to  a  range  of 
theyears  2008  to  2012. 

Rather  cleverly, 
Excel  will  not 
onlychangethe 
date  line  but 
will  also 
automatically 
adjust  the 
y-axis  labels  to 
an  appropriate 
range.  In  order 
to  add  thetitle 
'Change  years', 
click  on  a  cell 
on  the  actual 
worksheet  and 

then  enter  the  text  there. 

Finally,  on  the  main  Tools  menu, 
choose  Options  under  the  View  tab;  you 
may  wish  to  eliminate  the  usual 
worksheet  gridlines,  row  and  column 
headers  and  scroll  bars.  The  result  is 
shown  in  screenshot  2. 

Equation  Editor 

I've  previously  mentioned  the  useful 
M  S  Office  Equation  Editor,  which  you 
can  access  from  Excel  by  choosing 
Insert,  Object,  M  icrosoft  Equation.  It 
was  contributed  to  Office  by  Design 
Science,  which  is  now  offering  Tips  & 

T ricks  free  for  it  on  its  website  at 
www.mathtype.com,  as  well  as  for 
M  athType,  the  professional  version. 

CONTACTS 

Stephen  Wells  welcomes  your  comments  on 
the  Spreadsheets  column.  Contact  him  via  the 
PCW  editorial  officeoremail 

spreadsheets@pcw.co.uk.  Please  do  not 
send  unsolicited  file  attachments. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  Hi 


databases 


U  nmasking  the  culprit 

When  a  worried  DBA  finds  dirty  data  in  his  input  table,  Mark  Whitehorn  steps  in  to  investigate 


I  received  an  email  from  a  database 
administrator  (DBA)  who  wishes 
to  remain  anonymous.  H  e  (or 
she)  feels  that  colleagues  would 
mock  iftheyfound  out  that  a 
qualified  DBA  didn't  know  the  answer  to 
this  problem. 

Before  answering  the  question,  I'll  tell 
you  a  story.  Prior  to  the  launch  of  Access, 

I  was  invited  to  Seattle  to  meet  the 
people  who  were  building  the  database. 
Bill  M  arklyn  was  then  the  development 
manager  for  Access- a  title  that,  in 
M  icrosoft,  equates  to  'top  guy  in  charge 
of  the  project'.  At  one  stage  I  asked  him 
about  some  aspect  of  the  product  and  he 
said:  'Hmmm... 
interesting.  I  don't  know. 

SayBob...'and  proceeded 
to  ask  one  of  his  team.  At 
thetimel  tookcomfort 
from  this  and,  thinking 
about  it,  I  still  do!  If  the 
guyin  chargeof  a  major 
database  development 
project  doesn't  know  all 
the  answers  and  is  relaxed 
about  the  fact,  we  mere 
mortals  are  allowed  to  be 
equally  relaxed  about 
having  holes  in  our 
knowledge  too. 

Anyway,  the  anonymous  DBA  has  set 
an  input  mask  on  a  table  and  given  users 
forms  with  which  to  enter  data.  The  DBA 
was  horrified  to  discover  both  dirtydata 
in  the  table  (data  that  doesn't  conform 
to  the  input  mask)  and  that  the  input 
maskwas still  on  thetable!  Thequestion 
was  -  how  can  this  possibly  happen?  The 
input  mask  was  still  stopping  the  D  BA 
from  entering  dirtydata,  so  how  were  the 
users  getting  it  in  there? 

Some  background  information  may 
be  helpful  before  we  get  to  the  answer. 

All  database  systems  provide  some  way 
in  which  database  designers  can 
implement  the  so-called  'business  rules'. 
These  are  constraints  upon  data  placed 
by  the  business  needs  of  the  company  - 
an  example  might  be  a  rule  within  a 
given  company  that  all  order  numbers 
are  composed  of  one  character  and 
six  numbers. 


You  can  place  such  a  constraint  on 
thefield  within  a  tableand/oryou  can 
place  it  on  the  text  boxon  theform  that 
is  used  to  enter  data  into  that  field.  So,  in 
a  back-end  database  (SQL  Server,  DB2, 
Oracle  etc)  such  a  business  rule  could  be 
implemented  as  a  so-called  'check 
constraint'  on  thetable  (within  the 
database  itself)  or  as,  for  example,  a 
piece  of  Java  on  a  data  entry  page. 

So  far,  so  good.  But  knowing  that  the 
constraint  can  be  placed  in  more  than 
onelocation  begs  the  question:  'What  is 
the  best  place  to  implement  such  a 
business  rule?' 

The  answer,  unsurprisingly,  is:  'It 
depends'  (of  course).  Consider  the 
following  business  rulefrom  head  office. 
'All  order  numbers  are  to  be  constructed 
as  follows  -  one  character  and  six 
numbers.  The  character  "A”  signifies  that 
the  order  originated  in  theUK,  "B" 


A  bove:  D  irty  data  can  be  entered  into  the 
table,  despite  the  input  mask 
L  eft:  Setting  a  check  constraint  from  A  ccess 

signifies  the  US  and  "C"  means  Canada. 

'We  currently  operate  in  those  three 
countries,  further  letters  will  be  added 
to  the  list  by  head  office  as  and  when 
weexpand.' 

Assume  that  each  country  has  a 
different  order-entry  form.  Theform  used 
in  the  branch  office  in  the  U  K  should 
generate  an  appropriate  number  and 
prefixitwith  A.  It  should  checkforA  plus 
sixdigitsand  then  send  the  order  to  head 
office.  Theform  used  in  the  US  prefixes 
with  B  and  so  on. 

Back  at  the  ranch  (or  head  office)  a 
check  constraint  on  the  table  checks  that 
the  incoming  data  hasA,  B  orC  and  six 
digits.  At  first  sight  this  is  overkill  -  why 
does  head  office  need  to  check  at  all? 

However,  look  at  this  from  head 
office's  point  of  view.  It  is  responsible  for 
the  overall  allocation  of  prefixnumbers, 
so,  despite  trusting  the  regional  offices 
implicitly,  with  this  rule  in  place  it  knows 
that  no-onecan  commit  theheinous 
crime  of  using  an  unauthorised  prefix 
letter.  When  a  new  country  is  opened  up, 
the  people  there  get  a  new  form  and  the 
check  constraint  is  updated.  It's  as 
simpleasthat. 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


And,  crucially,  the  constraint  on  the 
table  can  never  be  subverted,  no  matter 
howtheformsaredesigned,  modified 
or  tweaked. 

Now,  back  to  Access.  An  input  mask 
can  be  placed  on  a  field  and  it  controls 
the  data  that  can  be  entered.  In  an  input 
mask,  L  means  obligatory  letter  and  0 
means  obligatory  digit.  So: 

>L000000 

allows  you  to  enter,  say,  D546540  but 
not  12-32FG. 

All  versions  of  Access  since  1.0  allow 
you  to  put  input  masks  on  both  the  table 
and  on  a  text  boxon  a  form.  The 
anonymous  DBA  has,  quite  reasonably, 
assumed  that  putting  the  input  mask  on 
the  table  means  that  it  functions  as  a 
constraint  on  that  table,  enforcing 
whatever  business  rule  was  required  on 
the  table  itself. 

But,  surprisingly,  it  doesn't  work  like 
that  in  Access.  You  can  try  this  for 
yourself.  Createasimpletable,  add  an 
input  mask,  savethetable,  and  then 
open  it  for  data  entry  and  try  to  defeat 
the  input  mask.  You  can't.  Generate  an 
auto  form  from  the  table  and  try  to  enter 
data  that  violates  the  mask.  You  can't. 

Now  swap  to  design  mode  for  the 
form,  remove  the  input  mask  from  the 
textboxand  try  again.  Now,  suddenly, 
you  can  enter  data  that  subverts  the 
business  rule  and  yet,  if  you  go  back  to 
theoriginal  table,  theinput 
mask  is  still  there  (see 
screenshot  1,  opposite). 


jm 

Screenshot  3 

■  iP 

N  ow  it  is  impossible  to  subvert  the  constraint 

In  other  words,  in  Access,  the  input 
mask  that  you  add  to  afield  in  a  table  is 
notthefinal  arbitratorof which  data 
mayor  may  not  enter  the  field.  In  fact,  it 
has  no  direct  power  over  the  data  at  all. 
Instead  it  simply  sits  there  as  a  resource 
that  is  used  when  forms  are  generated. 
And,  since  those  forms  can  later  be 
edited  to  remove  the  input  mask,  the 
ultimate  control  is  not  there. 

'Ah',  you  are  thinking,  'but  the  input 
mask  does  work  on  the  table  itself, 
because  when  I  open  thetablefordata 
entry,  the  mask  prevents  the  entry  of  dirty 


ORACLE 


IFSandbuts 

A  coupleof  months 
ago,  I  discussed 
thefact  that  theRegistry 
in  Windows  should  be 
implemented  asa 
relational  database, 
completewith  a  proper 
enginethat  supported 
transaction  control, 
rollback  etc.Oraclehas 
beaten  us  all  to  (at  least 
part  of)  thesolution  with 
its  I FS  (I  nternet  File 
System).  Takea  look 
atwww.oracle.com/ 
database/options/ifs. 

I  FS  is  an  extension  to 
theO racle8i  database 
that  allows  you  to  store 


ammn  Lkufc  kwai  I*  £wi 


files  in  a  relational 
database.Totoolssuch 
as  Microsoft  Explorer, 
thefilesystem  looks 
normal,  but,  becausethe 
files arestored  as  records 
in  an  RDBMS, all  sortsof 
extra  facilities,  such  as 
incrediblyrapid  content 


searching,  versioning 
and  event  notification, 
arepossible.Thereally 
excellent  news,  however, 
for  Oracle  users  at  I  east, 
is  that  0  raclel  FS  is 
availableforfreeto 
any  customer  with  a 
databaselicence. 


data.' True,  but 
remember  that 
a  table  is  simply 
an  abstract  set 
of  magnetic 
marks  on  a  disk. 
It  doesn't 
actually  have 
any  on-screen 
appearance 
at  all. 

So,  when 
you  double- 
clickon  a  table 
name  in  Access 
and  thetable 
seems  to  appear 
on  screen,  what 
is  actually 
happening  is 
that  Access  is  generating,  on  thefly,  a 
Datasheet-form  view  of  thedata  in  the 
table.  Thefact  that  you  can't  edit  the 
properties  of  this  table  doesn't  prevent  it 
from  inheriting  the  input  mask  from  the 
tabledefinition  in  which  theinput 
mask  sits. 

The  lack  of  absolute  control  worries 
me,  just  as  it  worries  the  anonymous 
D  BA,  but  there  is  now  an  answer. 

Straight  out  of  the  box,  Access  2000  runs 
against  theJET  database  engine,  but  if 
you  elect  to  use  a  Project  file,  then  Access 
runs  against  the  MSDE  (M  icrosoft 
Database  Engine).  And  since 
M  SDE  is  compatible  with  SQL 
Server,  when  you  use  Access  2000 
in  this  way,  you  acquire theability 
to  create  a  check  constraint  on 
the  table  (see  screenshot  2) . 

Formsdo  NOT  inherit  this 
constraint  as  an  input  mask  and 
cannot  be  used  to  subvert  the 
control  that  the  check  constraint 
imposes.  So,  if  you  elect  to  use 
Project,  you  get  the  full  control 
that  is  normally  the  prerogative  of 
a  back-end  database  engine 
(screenshot  3). 

So,  to  finally  answer  the 
question,  one  of  the  users  must 
have  removed  the  input  mask  from 
theform. 


CONTACTS 

M  ark  Whitehorn  welcomes  your  feedback  on 
the  Databases  column.  Contact  him  via  the 
PCW  editorial  office,  or  email: 

database@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


sounc 

i 

Lumley's  theme 

Ian  Waugh  is  sick  of  Windows  sounds  and  gets  his  PC  to  sing  another  tune  -  but  Joanna  stays! 


What  sound  does 
your  PC  play  when 
you  switch  it  on?  It 
maybea  clap  of 
thunder,  a  long 

sweeping  chord  or  a  short  arpeggio-type 
riff.  If  your  PC  was  set  up  and  configured 
by  a  third-party  PC  manufacturer  it  may 
well  play  another  sound  or  even  a  little 
ditty.  You've  probably  noticed  that  your 
PC  makes  other  noises,  too  -  when  you 
log  off,  to  announce  incoming  email, 
when  you  empty  the  Recycle  Bin  or  when 
you  scroll  to  the  top  or  bottom  of  a 
document.  In  fact,  Windows  can  make 
all  sort  of  sounds  in  response  to  various 
events;  an  audiblewayof  alertingyou  to 
situations  when  you  maynot  belooking 
at  the  screen. 

But  they  can  get  a  bit  wearing.  There's 
a  sound  called  Chord  that  makes  a  sharp 
pling/ding  sort  of  noise  and  grates  like 
hell.  It's  like  a  teacher  rapping  your 
knuckles  for  doing  something  wrong.  But 
the  good  news  is,  you  can  change  it  all. 

Theplaceto  start  is  the  Sounds 
Control  Panel  (Start  M  enu,  Settings, 
Control  Panel,  Sounds).  This  lists  the 
events  to  which  you  can  attach  sounds 
and  shows  those  that  have  been 
attached.  Sounds 
are  Wave  files  and 
they  can  reside 
anywhere  on  your 
hard  disk  but  most 
will  probablybein 
theWindows/ 

Media  directory. 

Programs  can 
install  sounds  and 
if  you  scroll  down 
the  list  you  may  see 
such  programs  and 
thesoundsthey 
use.  These  include 
AOL,  M  icrosoft 
NetMeetingand 
Norton  Utilities. 

Soundsfor 
programs  such  as 
these  are  usually  stored  in  the  programs' 
own  directories.  If  you  select  an  event 
and  a  sound,  the  latter's  name  and 
filepath  appear  in  the  N  ame  box 


Right:  Perk  up  your 
morning  with  the 
sound  of  a  coffee 
maker  from  the 
M  icrosoft  website 
M  iddle:  Sounds 
installed  by  other 
programs  are  likely 
to  be  in  that 
program's  directory 
Bottom:  Most  folks 
will  already  have  a 
range  of  Sound 
Schemes  in  their  PC 


»nJa  j 


li 


l-p^.Dr**  ¥ 

J 

_ 1 

Changing 
sounds  is  easy, 
but  before  you 
start  you  might 
want  to  save  the 
set  you  have, 
just  in  case  you 
devise  a  worse 
collection  than 
alreadyexists. 
Collections  of 
sounds  are 
called  Sound 
Schemes  and 
you  can  see  if 
any  additional  schemes  exist  on  your  PC 
by  clicking  on  the  Schemes'  drop-down 
menu.  You  mayalreadybeusingthe 
W  indows  Default  Scheme  but,  just  in 


case,  click  on  the  Save  As  button, 
enter  an  imaginative  name  such  as 
MySoundsl  and  clickOK. 

Thefirst  thing  you  might  want  to 
do  is  to  try  any  other  schemes  that 
maybe  installed.  You  might  have 
Jungle,  M  usica,  Utopia  and  Robotz 
Schemes  already  availablefrom  the 
Schemes  menu. 

Also,  take  a  look  in  the  Program 
Files/  Plusl/Themes  directory  and 
you  may  well  see  a  lot  more  (this 
depends  on  which  version  of 
Windows  you're  running  and  what 
was  installed  at  the  time).  If  you  have 
Themes  there,  click  back  to  the  Plus! 
folder  and  open  theapp  called 
themes.exe  (this  should  also  be  available 
as  Desktop  Themes  in  Control  Panels). 
This  lets  you  change  not  only  the  sounds 
but  also  the  desktop  wallpaper,  the 
icons,  colours,  screensaver  and  so  on. 

Select  a  Theme  from  the  menu  at  the 
top  and  check  out  the  new  goodies. 
We're  primarily  interested  with  the 
sounds  and  you  can  preview  the  sound 
collection  in  a  Theme  by  clicking  on  the 
'Pointers,  Sounds,  etc'  button.  You  can 
select  anyaspect  of  theThemeand 
transfer  it  to  your  current  Desktop 
settings  simply  by  checking  the  boxes  on 
the  right  and  clicking  Apply.  If  you're 
happy  with  the  other  aspects  of  your 


j  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Desktop  you  can 
simplyusethe 
sounds  in  another 
Theme  by 
unchecking  every 
other  box  except 
Sound  events  and 
then  clicking  Apply 

And  some  of 
these  Theme 
sounds  might  suit 
you  fine.  Fora 
while.  But  that  cute 
chimp  screech  or 
lion  roarthat 
engenders  riotous 
laughter  and  looks 
of  admiration  from 
friends  and  colleagues  may 
start  to  wear  thin,  too. 

No  problem.  You  can 
assign  any  sound  at  all  to  any 
event.  Back  in  the  Sounds 
Control  Panel,  simply  select 
the  event,  click  on  the  Browse 
button  and  navi  gate  your  way 
to  a  Wave  file.  You  can 
audition  thefile  before 
selecting  it  which  saves  much 
time.  Beware  of  selecting 
soundsthat  last  more  than  a 
second  or  two  other  than  for 
startup,  shutdown  and  other 
'long'  events;  they  will  really  grate. 

There's  an  alternative  to  using 
thethemes.exe  program  if  you  only 
wantto  change  thesoundsand  that's 
M  iSounds,  a  shareware  program  you  can 
find  at  Themes  'n'  Schemes  (http:// 
desktopthemes.com/sound.htm).  This 
lists  the  events  and  theWave  files 
associated  with  them,  which  you  can 
change,  of  course. 

It  can  also  pickup  thesounds 
from  a  Theme  without  going  through 
t h e  en t i re  sc reen saver/ d eskto p/  icons 
thing.  And  it  can  wrap  up  your  sound 
files  in  a  ZIP  file  which  you  can  email 
to  your  friends  -  or  enemies.  While 
you're  browsing,  checkout 
www.plusthemes.com,  too. 

If  you're  of  an  adventurous  bent  you 
can  record  your  own  sounds.  Actually, 
even  before  you  do  that  you  can  mess 
with  the  existing  sounds.  Even  the 
dreaded  Chord  Wave  can  betarted  up. 

Open  the  Sound  Recorder  (Start 
M  enu,  Accessories,  Entertainment, 

Sound  Recorder)  and  open  a  Wave  file  of 
your  choice.  Start  by  changing  its  speed 
from  the  Effects  menu.  Applying 


m 

£  £  jj 

1 M 

^1 

— 

. — 

...Vi 

I  r  w  1  MM:. 

Top:  You  can  assign  any  Wave  file  to  an 
event,  wherever  it  resides  on  your  hard  disk 
M  iddle:  TheD  esktop  T  hemes  C  ontrol 
Panel  lets  you  change  any  aspect  of  your 
D  esktop,  including  the  sounds 
Bottom:  M  iSounds  makes  it  easy  to  change 
the  sounds  assigned  to  system  events 

Decrease  Speed  a  couple  of  times  turns 
Chord  into  a  gong.  Apply  Reverse  and  it's 
a  backwards  gong!  See  if  you  can  beg, 
borrow,  steal  or  record  a  cymbal  sound 
and  then  play  that  backwards.  Great  fun! 

Adding  Echo  can  beef  up  a  sound, 
too.  The  more  times  you  select  Add  Echo 
from  the  menu,  the  more  echo  is  applied. 
Applying  Echo  several  times  even  to  the 


raw  Chord  wave  is  an  improvement. 

But  let's  say  you  want  to  record 
yourself  saying 'Good  Morning,  Brian' 
(assuming  you  want  your  PC  to  talk  to 
you  and  that  your  name  is  Brian).  You 
need  to  connect  a  microphoneto  your 
sound  card,  click  on  the  Record  button, 
say  your  piece  and  click  on  Stop. 

Unless  you  havethetimingof  Bob 
M  onkhouse  there  will  inevitably  be  some 
silence  or  shuffling  noises  at  the  start  and 
end  of  the  recording.  No  problem.  Move 
thesliderto  a  position  just  before  the 
start  of  the  section  of  recording  you  want 
to  keep  and  select  'Delete  BeforeCurrent 
Position'  from  the  Edit  menu.  M  ove  it 
to  the  end  of  the  section  and 
select  'Delete  After  Current 
Position'.  Savethefileand 
then  you  can  assign  it  to 
an  event. 

Ifyou  don't  fancytheDIY 
approach,  therearezillionsof 
Wavefiles  out  there  on  the 
web.  You  could  do  worse  than 
to  surf  over  to  http://msdn. 
microsoft.com/downloads, 
clickon  the  Downloads  menu 
and  select  Sounds. 

There  you'll  find  a  rangeof 
short  sounds,  well  suited  for 
use  as  system  sounds,  plus 
several  music  files,  too.  Ifyou 
want  to  engage  your  listeners  with  the 
sound  of  a  toilet  flush  each  timeyou 
empty  the  Recycle  Bin,  there  are  files  here 
to  do  it  (but  be  warned,  this  is  the  most 
common  useof  thetoilet flush  sound 
that  exists  in  computer  land).  You  can 
doubtless  think  of  more  original  and 
uniquesounds  with  which  to  pepper 
your  working  environment  and  spice 
up  your  PC. 

I  know  a  guy  who  uses  the  voice  of 
Hal  from 2001:  A  SpaceOdyssey,  which  is 
kinda  neat,  if  a  little  dated  now.  But  you 
could  use  more  up-to-date  recordings, 
say  from  a  favourite  movie  or  a  line  from 
a  song.  Whatever  you  use,  it's  got  to  be 
more  interesting  than  the  Chord  wave. 

Theonly sounds  I  won't  changeare the 
delicioustonesofjoanna  Lumley 
welcoming  me  to  AO  L  and  telling  me  I 
have  email.  Send  mea  message  someone... 

CONTACTS 

Ian  Waugh  welcomes  your  comments  on  the 
Sound  column.  Contact  him  via  the  PCI/I/ 
editorial  office  or  email:  sound@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  mi 


graphics  and  dtp 


Quick  Quark  tables 

Most  of  us  find  tables  tedious,  so  Ken  McMahon  shows  you  howto  make  it  easier  on  yourself 


If  you've  read  thetitleand  you're 
still  with  us,  you've  either  got  a 
monster tablejob  to  finish  by 
tomorrow,  or  you're  trying  to  avoid 
eye  contact  with  the  mad-looking 
person  oppositeyou  on  the8.45am. 

Let's  face  it,  tables  aren't  what  we  live 
for,  yet,  like  many  of  life's  chores,  they 
seem  to  come  around  all  too  frequently. 
Well,  I'm  going  to  show  you  how  you  can 
spend  less  time  producing  tables  in 
QuarkXPress  and  design  them  so  that 
importing  and  editing  data  is  easier. 

As  ever,  the  same  principles  apply  in 
pretty  much  any 
DTP  layout 
application, 
although  you  may 
need  to  modify 
specific  steps  to 
achieve  thesame 
result.  PageM  aker 
has  a  dedicated 
table-making 
application,  Adobe 
Table  (see 
screenshot  1),  but 
you  have  to  export 
thefinished  table 
in  text  format, 
which  defeats  the 
object,  or  as  an 
EPS.  So,  if  there  are  changes  to  be  made 
you  edit  in  AdobeTableand  re-export. 

If  you  use  Ventura  you  can  skip 
forward  to  one  of  the  other  HandsOn 
pages,  smug  in  the  knowledge  that 
Ventura's  table  features  are  on  a  par  with 
many  spreadsheets,  allowing  you  to 
import  data  from  spreadsheets  and 


Screenshot  2 


page  with  an  automatically  generated 
text  box.  Decidehow  manycolumnsyou 
are  going  to  need  and  leave  some  space  if 
you  need  an  extra-wide  column  on  the 
left.  You  can  make  use  of  Quark's  maths 
functions  in  the  M  easurements  palette  to 
workout yourcolumn  width.  In  the 
Width  window  delete  everything  that 


As  ever,  the  same  principles 
apply  in  pretty  much  any 
DTP  layout  application 


databases,  include  pictures  as  well  as 
text,  insert  new  rows  and  columns  and 
even  sort  data. 

For  the  rest  of  us,  though,  the  first 
thing  to  do  is  create  a  text  boxthat's  big 
enough  to  accommodate theentire 
table.  I've  started  with  an  A4  landscape 


comes  after  the  width  and  enter  the  slash 
symbol  followed  by  the  number  of 
columns,  for  instance  for  10  columns 
enter/ 10. 

Now  modifythetext  box.  M  akethe 
Text  Inset  0,  turn  off  Runaround  and  set 
thefirst  baseline  offset  to  5mm  to  give 


Left:  Adobe 
PageM  aker  has  a 
dedicated  table 
builder,  Adobe  Table 
Below:  Use  Step 
and  Repeat  to 
create  additional 
columns 

enough  clearance 
fromthetopofthe 
table.  If  you  want 
lines  between  your 
columns  now  isthe 
timeto  add  them, 
on  onesideonly 
using  the  Line  tool.  Create  the  additional 
column  boxes  using  Step  And  Repeat 
with  the  horizontal  distance  set  to  the 
exact  column  text  boxwidth  and  the 
repeat  count  to  the  total  number  of 
columns  minus  one  (screenshot  2). 

If  yo  u  've  I  eft  space  fo  r  a  wi  d  e  f  i  rst 
column  you  can  now  stretch  it  out  to  the 
left  margin.  Alt-click  on  the  Link  tool  to 
keep  it  selected  and  clickthrough  all  the 
column  text  boxes  to  linkthem. 

Copyyourdata  onecolumn  ata 
timefrom  Excel;  attheend  of  each 
column  press  Enter  (not  Return)  to  go  to 
the  next  column. 

Definea  StyleSheet  forthetabletext. 

In  the  Formats  tab  set  the  left  and  right 
indents  to  1mm  or  2mm -to  leave  a  gap 
between  the  text  and  the  column  edges. 
Seta  Rule  Below,  based  on  indents  and 
enter  a  negativefigurein  the  From  Left 
and  From  Right  boxes  that  corresponds  to 
the  text  indent  you  set  in  the  Formats  tab. 

In  otherwords,  if  you  setthetext 
indent  to  1mm  set  the  rule  indents  to 
-1mm.  Maketheoffset  about  75  per 
cent.  This  ensures  that  the  rules  go  right 
to  the  edge  of  the  text  boxand  butt  up 
with  those  in  the  adjacent  column. 

You  can  probably  get  a  better  idea  of 
what'sgoingon  byturningon  invisibles 
(Ctrl  &  I)  and  toggling  the  guides  with  F7. 
If  everything  has  gone  according  to  plan 
you  should  have  something  that  looks 
like  screenshot  3.  It's  looking  reasonably 
tidy,  but  there's  still  a  certain  amount  of 
cleaning  up  to  do. 

For  one  thing,  the  rule  below  each 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


entry  is  offset  so  far  that  it's  touching  the 
line  of  text  below.  Also,  there  are  some 
'cells'  where  the  text  has  wrapped  to  two 
lines,  causing  misalignment  of  column 
data  across  the  table.  Theonly  wayto 
sort  this  problem  isto  manuallyinsert 
soft  Returns  (Shift  &  Return).  Soft 
Returns  retain  paragraph  Style  Sheet 
formatting  and  won't  generate  a  rule. 

I've  inserted  soft  Returns  in  the  single- 
line  column  headings  to  makethem  all 
two  linesand  donethesameforall  the 
columns  in  the  last  entry  where  the  name 
has  wrapped  onto  two  lines.  I've  edited 
the  table-text  StyleSheet,  putting  0.5mm 
space  after 


paragraphs 
and  changing 
the  Rule  Below 
offset  to  30 
per  cent. 

Bynow 
yourtable 
should  be 
looking  fairly 
presentable,  if 
alittledull.To 
liven  it  up  and 
make  it  more 
readable  make 
thecolumns 
alternate 
colours.  Press 
F12  to  bring  up 
thecolours 
palette  and 
Shift-click  every 
other  column 
starting  with 

thefirstone.  Check thefill  colour  boxand 
applya  30  per  cent  tint  of  your  chosen 
colour.  Then  select  the  remaining  columns 
and  fill  with  a  contrasting  tint. 

0  nee  you've  sorted  out  the  leading, 
rules  and  spaces  before  and  after,  you 
can  adjust  the  depth  of  the  table  by  drag 
selecting  all  ofthecolumnsand  entering 
a  new  value  in  the  height  window  of  the 
measurement  palette.  To  add  a  border 
rule  to  the  table,  draw  a  picture  boxover 
thetop  with  no  runaround  and  a 
background  colourof  noneand  seta 
border  width  and  colour.  If  you  want  a 
thickframe,  change theframing  default 
of  insideto  outsidein  thegeneral 
preferences  tab  so  the  frame  doesn't 
encroach  on  the  text  (screenshot  4). 

There  are  several  advantages  to 
adopting  this  column-based  approach. 
It's  a  simple  matter  to  change  thedepth 
of  the  table  to  fit  your  page  layout  by 


- 


— a - 

>  ■  il 


A  dding  some  colour  and  a  thick  frame  is  simple  and  livens  up  your  table 


adjusting  the  leading  and  space  before 
and  after  paragraphs;  all  of  the  rules 
move  with  the  type  so  no  further 
adjustment  is  necessary.  If  thetable 
spreads  across  two  pages  you  can  easily 
open  it  up  to  make  space  for  the  gutter, 
or  for  that  matter  add  new  columns. 

If  you  want  to  add  a  new  row  you  will 
have  to  cut  and  paste  the  data  for  each 
column,  but  if  you  take  care,  that's  all 
you'll  have  to  do  -  the  rows  beneath  the 
new  entry  will  all  still  align.  Compared 
with  the  messing  about  that's  involved  if 
you  arrange  the  text  in  onetab- 
delineated  box,  or  in  linked  row-based 
boxes,  you're  looking  at  an  early  lunch  as 
opposed  to  a  late  night. 

Best  of  all,  you  can  usethistableasa 
template  for  new  data  from  an  Excel 
spreadsheet  and,  if  you  want  to  be  really 
clever,  you  can  make  use  of  Xpress  Tags 
to  minimise,  who  knows,  even  eliminate 


Left:  There's  still 
some  way  to  go, 
but  the  table  is 
taking  shape 

the  need  for  post¬ 
import  editing. 

Your  Excel  chart 
will  need  the  same 
number  of  rows 
and  columnsasthe 
Quark  one.  First, 
you  will  need  to 
transpose  the  rows 
and  columns.  You 
can  do  this  by 
copying  the  relevant 
cells,  creating  a  new 
workbook,  selecting  Paste 
Special  and  clicking  the 
Transpose  radio  button. 

You  will  need  to  create 
newcolumnsfortheXpress 
formatting  and  StyleSheet 
tags.  There's  not  room  to 
go  into  it  in  depth,  but  tags 
are  explained  in  the 
appendixoftheXpress 
manual.  You'll  need  a 
column  attheend  ofthe 
data  with  the  new  boxtag 
<b>and  a  column  before 
any  Style  Sheet  changes 
with  the@stylesheet: 
definition.  Savethetext 
as  a  tab-delimited  file, 
giving  it  an  .xtg  extension, 

_  so  that  it's  recognised  as  a 

tags  file  by  Quark. 

Import  the  text  into  Quark,  making 
sure  to  check  the  'include  Style  Sheets' 
button  in  the  Get  Text  dialog.  You'll  have 
somecleaning  up  to  do  -  primarilyusing 
Search  and  Replace  to  remove  all  the 
tabs  and  replace  them  with  returns. 

0  K,  it  doesn't  make  producing 
tables  exciting,  that's  asking  too  much. 
But  it  will  mean  that  you  spend  less 
time  formatting  tabulated  data,  your 
tables  will  look  better  because  you'll 
have  more  time  to  spend  on  the  design 
and  corrections  won't  keep  you  up 
until  midnight. 

CONTACTS 

Ken  M  cM  ahon  welcomes  your  comments  on 
theGraphics&  DTP  column.  Contact  him  via 
the  PCI/I/  editorial  office,  oremail: 

graphics@pcw.co.uk 


Screenshot  4 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


Between  dimensions 


There's  more  than  one  way  to  skin  a  3D  object,  with  Texture  Weapons,  says  Benjamin  Woolley 


Weall  know  about 
3D  graphics,  of 
course,  and  2D 
graphics,  but 
2. 5D?  How  can 

you  havea  two-and-a-half  dimension?  It 
sounds  like  an  idea  from  a  surreal 
fantasy,  liketheseven-and-a-half  floor  in 
thefilm  Being  JohnMalkovich. 

Theterm  is  used  (not  uniquely)  in  a 
texturing  product  called  'DeepPaint  3D 
with  Texture  Weapons'  by  Right 
Hemisphere  and  it  is  being  used  in  all 
seriousness.  It  describes  that  dimension 
of  graphics  authoring  that  is  essential  to 
producing  good  work,  but  falls  neither 
entirelyinto  thetwo  orthree-dimensional 
realms:  texture  mapping.  When  you 
applyor 'map'  a  material,  which  is  flat, 
around  an  object,  you  are 
momentarily  suspended  in 
this  strange  intermediary 
domain. 

This  is  where toolssuch 
as  DeepPaint,  MeshPaint 
3D  and  Painter  3D 
(formerly  M  etacreations' 
but  now  owned  byCorel) 
can  be  so  useful,  offering 
toolsthat,  hopefully,  will 
soon  be  integrated  with 
mainstream  3D-authoring 
packages. 

DeepPaint  3D  with 
Texture  Weapons  costs  over  £625  and  is 
squarely  aimed  at  the  professional 
market,  but  it  is  worth  a  look  at,  if  only 
because  it  takes  you  so  effectively  into 
this  2.5D  world  and  helps  make  sense  of 
it.  You  can  download  a  19. 9M  B  time- 
limited  demo  of  DeepPaint  3D  (but  not, 
at  the  time  of  writing,  Texture  Weapons) 
from  www.us.righthemisphere.com/ 
dpaint3d/download.htm. 

Basically,  3D  paint  packages  such  as 
DeepPaint  3D  allow  you  to  draw,  spray 
or  cover  a  3D  object  with  a  2D  texture. 
The  texture  could  bea  colour,  oreven  an 
image.  If  it  is  an  image,  it  could  beone 
that  is  repeated  across  the  surface  (you 
might  use  a  tiled  pattern  for  fish  scales, 
for  example),  or  is  applied  just  once  (for 
example,  the  iris  on  an  eyeball).  The  key 
to  applying  these  textures  successfully  is 


% 


W 


Screenshot  1 


A  hove:  TheD  eepPaint  3D  interface, 
showing  a  goblin's  head  covered  with  a 
'hide'  texture 

L  eft:  The  2. 5  th  dimension.  T he  mesh  of 
pink  lines  are  the  U  V  map  for  the  goblin's 
head,  the  face  is  visible  in  the  lower  centre 
portion  of  the  image.  T he  background  is  the 
hide  texture  flattened  out 


Screenshot  2 


'mapping'  and  this  is  where  tools  such  as 
DeepPaint  3D  can  really  help. 

In  order  to  accept  a  texture,  an  object 
needs  mapping  co-ordinates.  These 
specify  how  the  2D  texture  or  material  is 
applied  to  the  3D  surface.  The  mapping 
co-ordinates  for  a  particular  object  are 
usually  called  (for  reasons  too  obscure  to 
go  into  here)  'UV'  co-ordinates. 

When  you  create  an  object  using  a 
3D-authoring  package,  a  set  of 
appropriate  UV  co-ordinates  will  often 
be  automatically  generated.  For  example, 
a  sphere  will  have  UV-mapping  co¬ 
ordinates  so  that  you  can  apply  a  flat 
map  of  the  world  to  it  and  turn  it  into  a 
model  of  theearth  (s ee3D,  HandsOn, 
April  1997).  The  problems  arise  when  the 
object  is  more complex(a  head,  for 
example)  and  has  been  heavily  edited. 


When  you  delete  or  add  faces  to  an 
object  or  perform  Boolean  operations, 
you  will  seriously  compromiseor  lose  the 
UV-mapping  co-ordinates  for  the  entire 
object.  When  that  happens,  theonly 
texture  you  can  applyisa  simple  colour; 
you  cannot  even  add  colours  with  texture 
in  them,  such  as  a  grain. 

The  new,  aggressively-named  Texture 
Weapons,  an  add-on  to  DeepPaint  3D, 
illustrates  the  problem  nicely.  Texture 
Weapons  (like  Paint  3D)  allows  you  to 
see  the  UV  co-ordinates  fora  model  - 
the  2.5  dimensional  view.  In  screenshot 
1,  for  example,  we  have  DeepPaint 
displaying  a  model  of  a  goblin's  head, 
textured  using  a  'hide'  (as  in  rawhide) 
material.  Screenshot  2  shows  the  UV 
map  for  the  head. 

The  U  V  map  takes  a  bit  of 
explanation.  You  can  think  of  it  as  what 
you  get  if  you  pull  theskin  off  thegoblin's 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Screenshots 


skull  (just  as  the  U  V  map  of  a  bear  is  a 
bear-skin  rug).  The  mesh  shows  the 
individual  faces  of  the  map  and,  as  is 
obvious,  it  has  a  considerable  number  of 
irregularities,  particularly  towards  the 
edges.  Applying  a  chequered  material  to 
the  head  reveals  some  of  these 
irregularities  (screenshot  3). 

In  contrast,  the  UV  map  of  the 
goblin's  eyeballs  (screenshot  4)  is  much 
simpler  and  therefore  easier  to  handle:  a 
sphere  that  flattens  out  into  a  circle.  This 
is  easy  to  align  with  the  texture,  which 
shows  the  iris  and  the  speckled  whites 
(or,  in  this  instance,  yellows)  of  the  eyes 
(screenshot  5). 

Theonlywayof  getting  similarly 
smooth  results  with  the  irregularities  on 
the  crown  of  the  head  is  to  edit  the 
existing  UV  map,  or  add  a 
new  one.  Using  software 
such  as  DeepPaint  3D,  you 
have  endless  options  for 
altering  the  U V  map.  0  ne  of 
them  is  to  'project'  paint, 
which  applies  the  texture  to 
the  current  view  of  the 
object  as  a  projector  would 
apply  an  image  (technically, 
this  involves  creating  a  new 
planar  U V  map  parallel  with 
the  current  view  of  the 
object).  This  is  useful  for 
covering  up  seams. 

In  a  3D  package,  your 
best  option  is  usually  to  play 
around  with  the  geometry 
itself.  For  example,  you 
co  u  I  d  sel  ect  t  h  e  f  aces  t  h  a  t  m  a  ke  u  p  t  h  e 
goblin's  crown,  detach  them,  and  create 
a  replacement  using  simpler  geometry  (a 
section  from  a  sphere,  moulded  into  the 
appropriate  shape,  which  will  be  easier  to 
map  using  spherical  projection).  Theonly 
problem  you  will  now  have  is  hiding  the 
join  between  the  new  crown  and  the  rest 
ofthehead.  This  would  probablyhaveto 
be  done  by  aligning  the  vertices  as  neatly 
as  possible  at  the  seam. 

Even  with  tools  such  as  DeepPaint 
3D,  these  operations  are  not  easy  and  the 
results  are  not  always  predictable.  We 
still  await  the  invention  ofthetrue2.5D 
tool  which  allows  you  to  take  your  3D 
scenes  into  that  strange  world  and 
emerge  with  their  textures  intact. 

3D  cards 

Dr  Leask  asked  a  question  a  couple  of 
months  ago  about  converting  statistical 
data  into  3D  objects.  Evidentlya  satisfied 


Screenshot  4:  TheUV  map  of  the 
goblin's  eyes 

ScreenshotS:  The  goblin's  two  eyes,  with 
surrounding  face  temporarily  hidden 

customer,  he  has  come  back  with 
another  query  and  one  that  deserves  an 
airing  because  it  echoes  one  I  get  on  a 
regular  basis.  H  e  asks:  'Can  you  advise 
me  on  how  to  choose  a  graphics  card 
that  will  give  me  a  significant 
performance  hike  when  viewing  and 
rotating  my3D  models?' 

Weareconstantlybombarded  with 
ads  and  reviews  announcing  the  arrival  of 


Screenshot  3:  The  back 
of  the  goblin's  head 
textured  with  a  chequer 
pattern  to  highlight 
artefacts  in  the  U  V  map 

yet  faster  3D 
accelerators.  Recently, 
there  has  been 
excitement  at  the  new 
generation  of 'GPUs' 
(graphics  processing 
units)  which 
accelerate  'T&L' 
(transform  and 
lighting),  ie speed  up 
not  just  the  rendering 
of  scenes,  but  the 
calculation  of  the 
geometryand  light 
sources  they  contain. 

However,  many  of  these  fancy¬ 
sounding  advances  are  aimed  at 
accelerating  games.  For  example, 
nVidia's  new  GeForce2  graphics  chip 
includes  a  powerful  T&L  engine  that  will 
work  with  DirectX  (now  moreorless 
established  as  the  standard  for  realtime 
rendering  of  3D  on  a  PC  screen,  the  main 
alternative  being  OpenGL).  But  you  can 
only  benefit  from  this  acceleration  if  the 
software  knows  about  the  way  the 
GeForceT&L  engine  works,  which  your 
3D-authoring  package  is  unlikely  to  do. 

Hence,  you  should  not  be  too  swayed 
by  the  claims  of  the  graphics  cards 
manufacturers.  What  really 
counts  is  a  card  with  a  solid 
driver  that  offers  good  support 
for  DirectX  and  OpenGL  and 
your  chosen  operating  system 
(which,  these  days,  I  would  say 
should  beWindows2000 
Professional  or  Linux;  Windows 
98  is  not  up  to  thejob).  Forthis 
reason,  I  would  recommend 
cards  with  a  good  track  record  for 
keeping  their  drivers  updated,  such  as 
those  produced  byMatroxorElsa. 

TrueSpace  users  might  want  to  check 
out  Caligari's  list  of  recommended  3D 
cards  at  www.caligari.com/  help/ 
rec_hardware/index.html. 


CONTACTS 

Benjamin  Woolley  welcomes  your  comments 
onthe3D  Graphics  column.  Contact  him  via 
the  PCI/I/  editorial  officeoremail: 

3d@pcw.co.uk 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


Caught  in  the  .NET 

Tim  Anderson  delves  into  M  icrosoft's  .NET  Framework  and  gets  a  clock  ticking  in  PowerPoint 


The  NET  Framework 


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Something  old,  something 
new:  but  with  M  icrosoft's 
hype  machinery  in  overdrive, 
probing  the  reality  behind  its 
next-generation  develop¬ 
ment  strategy,  the  .N  ET  platform,  takes  a 
great  deal  of  care.  The  starting  point  is 
thecommon  language  runtime.  It  sounds 
new,  but  in  fact  has  a  lot  in  common  with 
the  old  Visual  Basic  runtime,  which 
M  icrosoft  started  to  call  the  Visual  Basic 
Virtual  M  achinewhen  Java  got  popular. 

Just  as  VB  compiles  to  pseudo-code 
that  requires  the  VB  runtime,  the 
common  language  runtime  operates  on 
intermediate  code  -  M  SIL  (M  icrosoft 
Intermediate  Language).  M  icrosoft  also 
calls  this  managed  code,  meaning  that 
the  runtime  libraries  do  housekeeping 
such  as  allocating  and  releasing  memory 
and  catching  errors.  The  new  piece  is  that 
in  Visual  Studio. N  ET,  the  next  version  of 
M  icrosoft's  suite  of  development  tools, 
all  the  languages  can  compile  to  M  SIL. 

N  ot  long  ago  this  would  have  been 
seen  as  a  massive  step  backwards.  Faster 
performance  and  easier  deployment 
made  native  code  more  desirable.  Today, 
advances  in  hardware  have  made 
performance  less  of  an  issue,  and 
developers  are  likely  to  rate  other  factors 
such  as  productivity,  scalability,  object 
orientation  and  web  support  as  more 
important.  In  addition,  intermediate 
code  performs  better  than  it  did.  The 
common  runtime  library  does  just-in- 
time  compilation  to  native codeand 
performance  should  be  nearly  as  good  as 
a  true  native  executable. 

The  big  advantage  of  the  common 
language  runtime  is  interoperability.  It 
has  enabled  M  icrosoft  to  create  a  shared 
class  library  that  all  the  languages  can 
use.  There  is  also  a  shared  data  type 
system.  This  class  library  is  the  heart  of 
the.NET  Framework.  It  should  replace 
M  FC  (M  icrosoft  Foundation  Classes)  as 
well  as  VB's  black-boxobjects.  The 
Windows  API  may  become  irrelevant  for 
business  applications.  A  key  feature  is 
WinForms,  which  are similarto  VB  forms 
today.  The  difference  is  that  all  the 
languages  can  now  use  them,  giving 
Visual  C-H-a  RAD  (Rapid  Application 


Development)  form  designer  for  the  first 
time.  WebForms  provide  an  alternative 
web-based  user  interface,  based  on 
Active  Server  Pages.  There  is  also  a  data 
access  class  library  called  ADO  +. 

Sounding  out  C# 

The.NET  Framework  is  written  in 
M  icrosoft's  new  language,  C#(C  sharp). 
This  is  based  on  C-H-and  could  probably 
have  been  Java  if  M  icrosoft  and  Sun  got 
on  better.  It  is  a  safer  and  more 
productive  language,  thanks  to 
automatic  memory  management,  full 
object  orientation  and  simplification  of 
so  me  C++ features.  For  example, 
multiple  inheritance  is  not  supported 
and  header  files  are  not  required.  You 
can  drop  down  to  low-level  codeand  do 
such  things  as  pointer  arithmetic  and 
manual  memory  management  when 
needed,  through  the  unsafe  keyword. 

To  know  why  C# is  necessary,  you 
need  only  look  at  the  other  languages  in 
Visual  Studio.  In  a  nutshell,  VB  is  too 
ugly,  Visual  C++istoo  difficult  and 
obscure  and  Visual  FoxPro  is  a  dedicated 
database  language  used  by  a  minority.  C 
orC++compiled  to  native  code  (rather 
than  thecommon  language  runtime)  will 
remain  the  best  choice  if  you  need  the 
fastest  possible  performance,  or  to  write 
a  device  driver.  For  general  Windows 
development,  though,  C#  looks  likely  to 
be  the  preferred  language  and  at  last 
rivals  Borland's  Delphi  and  C++Builder. 
C#  is  not  a  true  competitor  to  Java.  It  has 
no  cross- platform  capability  or  built-in 


The.NET  Framework 
promises  more 
productive  W  indows 
development 


security  features. 
Rather,  it  is  an 
important 
enhancement  to 
M  icrosoft's  arsenal  of 
development  tools. 

Clock  watching 

Steve  Small  asks:  'Is  it 
possibleto  displaya 
running clockon  an 
active  PowerPoint  presentation,  so  the 
audience  can  synchronise  their  watches? 

I  can't  find  a  method  using  PowerPoint 
features  or  any  Visual  Basic  objects.' 

There  are  several  possible  solutions. 
You  could  digout  theold  Windows  clock 
application  and  run  it  set  'always  on  top'. 
If  that  will  not  do,  you  could  createan 
ActiveX  control  in  Visual  Basic,  with  a 
label,  a  timer  and  a  few  lines  of  code,  and 
add  it  to  a  PowerPoint  slide  or  to  the 
slide  master.  This  is  easy  for  developers, 
but  is  a  heavyweight  solution  that 
requires  the  control  to  be  installed  on 
every  machine  where  the  presentation  is 
run.  Finally,  you  can  use  VBA.  Although  it 
is  unlikely  that  many  will  want  to  add  a 
clock  to  PowerPoint  slides,  the  general 
use  of  a  timer  could  have  many  uses  and 
thefollowing  is  a  simple  example. 

The  general  approach  is  to  put  a  label 
on  each  slide  and  have  a  timer  update  it 
with  the  current  time  at  the  interval  of 
your  choice.  Using  a  timer  from  VBA 
requires  Office  2000.  This  is  because 
VBA  has  no  timer  control  and  the  API 
function  SetTimer  takes  a  function 
pointer  as  one  of  its  parameters.  This 
requires  the  AddressOf  operator,  not 
supported  in  earlier  VBA  versions. 

0  pen  or  start  a  PowerPoint 
presentation  and  displaytheVB  toolbar. 
0  pen  the  VBA  editor  and  add  both  a 
moduleand  a  class moduleto  theproject 
(see figure  1  overleaf).  You  need  a 
standard  module  because  AddressOf 
does  not  work  with  functions  in  class 
modules.  In  the  class  module  are  three 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  m 


FIG  1 


Code  for  ClockUpdater  class  module 


Private  WithEvents  app  As  application 
Private  Declare  Function  SetTimer  Lib  ✓ 
"user32"  (ByVal  hwnd  As  Long,  ByVal  ✓ 
nIDEvent  As  Long,  ByVal  uElapse  As  Long,  ✓ 
ByVal  IpTimerFunc  As  Long)  As  Long 
Private  Declare  Function  KillTimer  Lib  ✓ 
"user32"  (ByVal  hwnd  As  Long,  ByVal  ✓ 
nIDEvent  As  Long)  As  Long 
Private  Declare  Function  FindWindow  Lib  ✓ 
"user32"  Alias  " Fi  ndWi ndowA"  (ByVal  ✓ 
IpClassName  As  String,  ByVal  IpWindowName  ✓ 
As  Long)  As  Long 

Private  apphandle  As  Long 

Pub  l  i c  Sub  StopC  lock( ) 

Dim  i  As  Long 

i  =  Ki l ITi mer (apphand  le,  1) 

End  Sub 

Public  Sub  StartClockO 
Dim  i  As  Long 

apphandle  =  Fi ndWi ndow( "PP9FrameC  lass",  0&) 
i  =  SetTi  mer ( apphand  l e,  1  ,  500,  AddressOf  ✓ 
Upda teC lock) 

End  Sub 

Private  Sub  app_S l i deShowBeg i n ( ByVa  l  Wn  As  ✓ 
S l i deShowWi ndow) 

Sta rtC  lock 
End  Sub 

Private  Sub  app_S l i deShowEnd (ByVa l  Pres  As  ✓ 
Presentation) 


StopC  lock 
End  Sub 

Private  Sub  C lass_Ini ti a l i ze( ) 

Set  app  =  application 
End  Sub 

Code  for  ClockUpdater  standard  module 

Dim  cu  As  ClockUpdater 

Public  Sub  UpdateC lock( ) 

Dim  s  As  Slide 

Dim  sh  As  Shape 

On  Error  GoTo  errhand 

Set  s  =  S l  i  deShowWi ndows ( 1 ) . Vi ew . S  l  i de 

For  Each  sh  In  s. Shapes 
If  sh.Name  =  "Labell"  Then 
sh . OLE  Forma t . Ob j ec t .  Capt  i  on  =  "Time:  "  +  ✓ 
Format$(Now,  "Long  Time") 

Exit  For 

You  can 
manipulatea 
VBA  control  in 
code  when  a 
slideshow  is 
running 


End  If 
Next 

Exit  Sub 


errhand: 
cu .  StopC lock 
MsgBox  "Error:  "  +  Err . Descr i pt i on 

End  Sub 

Sub  Ini t i a  l  i zeApp( ) 

Set  cu  =  New  ClockUpdater 
End  Sub 


(Key:  ✓  code  string  continues) 


API  declarations  for  SetTimer,  KillTimer, 
and  FindWindow.  The Class  lnitialize 
method  gets  a  reference  to  the 
PowerPoint  application  object  and  puts 
it  in  a  variable  declared  WithEvents.  This 
enables  the  class  to  handletwo  applica¬ 
tion  events,  SlideShowBegin  and 
SlideShowEnd. 

When  a  slideshow  opens,  the 
StartClock  method  is  called.  This  gets  the 
handle  of  PowerPoint's  main  window 
using  FindWindow.  You  will  need  extra 
code  if  more  than  one  instance  is 
running.  Next,  SetTimer  is  called.  The 
third  argument  sets  the  interval  in 
milliseconds  and  thefourth  provides  a 
pointer  to  theUpdateClockfunction. 

U  pdateClock  is  where  the  business  is 
done.  Objects  on  a  PowerPoint  slide  are 
held  in  the  Shapes  collection.  Thecode 
looks  for  a  shape  with  the  name 'Labell' 


and,  if  found,  sets  its  caption  to  the 
current  time.  Finally,  the  standard 
moduleincludesa  one-linefunction  to 
create  an  object  of  the  ClockU  pdater 
class.  To  use  thecode,  placea  label  on 
each  slidewhereyou  require  a  clock. 

N ext,  run  the  InitializeApp  function.  Then 
run  theslideshow.  If  you  use  this  for  real, 
you  will  probably  want  to  add  further 
error  checking.  Disable  the  timer  if  things 
go  wrong  and  bear  in  mind  that  API  calls 
make  VBA  code  less  safe. 

There  are  several  pieces  of  classic 
VBA  obscurity  in  this  example.  Who 
would  guess  that  to  set  the  caption 
of  a  label,  you  need  to  write  to 
Shape.O  LEFormat.O  bject.Caption?  0  r 
that  PowerPoint's  window  is  called 
'PP9FrameClass'?  Facts  like  these  can  be 
uncovered  using  the  M  SDN  library.  The 
wholething  would  betidier  if  you  could 


use  one  of  PowerPoint's  native  shapes 
instead  of  a  VBA  label  control,  but  while 
this  is  possible,  it  is  harder  to  identify  the 
control  you  want  in  code,  since  a  shape's 
name  property  is  not  editable.  Another 
irritation  is  that  InitializeApp  has  to  be 
run  manually  when  the  presentation  is 
opened.  You  could  overcomethis  by 
moving  the  code  into  an  add-in  with  an 
auto_open  function. 


CONTACTS 

Tim  Anderson  welcomes  your  comments  on 
the  Visual  Programming  column.  Contact 
him  via  thePCI/l/  editorial  officeoremail: 

visual@pcw.co.uk 

For  more  information  on  Visual  Studio. N  ET 
visit  http://msdn.microsoft.coi 

vstudio/nextgen 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


web  development 


Improving  the  script 

Tim  Anderson  explains  how  to  get  the  best  out  of  ASPs  and  uses  a  menu  for  web  navigation 


Active  Server  Pages  (ASPs) 
are  one  of  the  bright  spots 
in  M  icrosoft's  struggle  to 
come  to  terms  with  the 
Internet.  In  principlethey 
are  similar  to  alternatives  such  as  server- 
side  includes  and  PH  P  (Hypertext  pre¬ 
processor)  .  An  ASP  page  is  parsed  by  the 
web  server  before  being  returned  to  the 
browser,  so  that  the  content  can  be 
modified  byscripts,  or  byreplacing 
placeholders  with  dynamic  data. 

Through  ASP,  M  icrosoft  has  been  able  to 
provide  dynamic  websites  using  pre¬ 
existing  Windows  technology,  such  as 
Visual  Basic,  COM  automation,  and 
data  access  via  ODBC  and  ADO. 

You  do  not  need  anything  more 
elaborate  than  Notepad  to  author  ASP 
pages.  The  only  real  requirement  is 
Internet  Information  Server  (IIS)  or,  if  you 
are  sufficiently  determined,  you  can  use 
ASP  on  Unix  web  servers  via  third-party 
extensions.  This  ease  of  use  combined 
with  familiarity  for  Windows  developers 
has  made  ASP  a  success.  That  said,  the 
majority  of  ASP  pages  out  on  the  web  are 
probably  not  working  as  M  icrosoft 
designed  them  to  work.  What  you  are 


meantto  do  isto  encapsulatethebulkof 
your  code  into  COM  objects,  typically 
created  with  thefull  version  of  Visual 
Basic  or  with  the  ActiveTemplate  Library 
(ATL)  in  Visual  C++.  Then  you  can  use 
minimal  ASP  script  and  get  native-code 
performance  from  the  components  that 
are  doing  the  real  work.  M  icrosoft  also 
provides  server-side  component 
management,  using  M  icrosoft 
Transaction  Server  or,  more  recently, 
Component  Services.  This  can  optimise 
performance  by  sharing  component 
instances  between  multiple  client 
sessions,  making  websites  more  scalable. 

Unfortunately,  developers  often  take 
the  opposite  approach,  sticking  most  of 
the  server-side  logic  into  JavaScript  or 


VBScript  embedded  into  HTM  L.  It  is 
interesting  to  see  that  M  acromedia's 
Dreamweaver  UltraDev,  a  RAD  tool  for 
ASP,  generates  exactly  this  kind  of  code. 

A  lot  can  be  achieved  in  this  way,  but 
the  results  are  also  hard  to  maintain,  do 
not  scale  well  and  cause  problems  when 
designers  need  to  work  on  the  same 
pages  as  developers.  Part  of  the  reason 
developers  stick  with  script  is  the  large 
leap  in  complexity  between  simpleASP 


work  and  development  using  server-side 
components.  M  icrosoft's  ASP  develop¬ 
ment  tool,  Visual  InterDev,  does  little  to 
simplify  the  process. 

There  is  a  useful  paper  in  M  icrosoft's 
onlineWeb  Workshop  (http:// msdn. 
microsoft.com/workshop/server/asp/ 
server0124000.asp)  that  illustrates  the 
point.  Entitled  ASP  Component  Guidelines, 
it  suggests  not  using  ASP  sessions, 
keeping  components  to  page  scope  only, 
not  using  Request  or  Response  objects  in 
business  components,  avoiding  single- 
threaded  components,  using 
Server. CreateO  bject  rather  than 
CreateO  bject  in  script  and  not  using 
0  nStartPage  or  0  nEndPage  handlers. 
These  are  good  tips,  but  they  also 


WebFormsin 
VisualStudio.NET 
are  available  to 
all  M  icrosoft's 
languages 


demonstrate  the 
many  pitfalls 
inherent  in  scalable 
web  development. 

M  icrosoft's 
forthcoming  Visual 
Studio.NET  will 
address  some,  but 
not  all,  of  these 
problems.  Visual 
InterDev  itself  will 
disappear,  to  be 
replaced  by  a  new  form  designer  called 
WebForms,  available  to  all  theVisual 
Studio  languages  including  C#. 

WebForms  are  essentially  ASPs,  but 
instead  of  generating  script,  the  designer 
links  the  web  pages  to  server-side 
components.  For  example,  you  can  add  a 
WebForm  to  a  Visual  Basic  project, 
double-click  a  button  to  open  its  event 
handler  and  add  someVB  code.  At 
runtime,  the  VB  code  runs  in  a  compiled 
VB  component,  not  as  VBScript 
embedded  in  HTM  L.  As  with  ASP  today, 
the  browser  clients  can  be  running  on  any 
platform  and  need  only  understand 
simpleHTM  L,  unless  you  choose  to  use 
ActiveX,  Dynamic  HTM  L,  or  other  client- 
side  technologies. 

Another  factor  is  that  the 
forthcoming  .N  ET  Framework,  a  class 
library  written  in  C#,  has  built-in  support 
for  ASP  and  ASP  components.  This  does 
not  mean  you  have  to  write  components 
in  C#,  as  all  theVisual  Studio  languages 
can  use  the  framework.  If  M  icrosoft  has 
donea  good  job,  it  should  mean  that 
properly  scalable  components  are  easier 
to  create.  There  are  some  practical 
improvements  as  well.  The  new  version  of 
ASP,  called  ASP+,  will  also  be  easier  to 
debug  and  deploy.  A  current  problem  is 
persuading  IIS  to  unload  a  library  so  that 
you  can  install  a  new  version.  ASP+ 
supports  dynamic  dll  updates,  so  you 
can  simply  copy  a  new  version  over  the 
old  and  have  IIS  recognise thechange. 


ASP+ supports  dynamic  DLL 
updates,  so  you  can  copy  a 
new  version  over  the  old 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Application  isolation  means  that  each 
web  application  can  use  its  own 
components  and  component  versions 
without  interfering  with  others.  You  will 
also  beableto  deployCOM  components 
without  running  regsvr32  to  install  them. 

There  are  other  interesting  features  in 
ASP+.  Server-side  controls,  such  as 
listboxes  and  grids,  can  be  intelligent 
about  the  client.  W  hat  the  client  sees  is 
pureHTM  L,  so  a  server-side  control  is 
reallya  pieceofcodethat  generates 
different  HTML  according  to  what  it 
knows  about  the  client.  You  can  do  the 
same  in  ASP  today,  but  only  by  manual 
coding.  This  will  be  useful,  assuming  that 
users  will  increasingly  want  to  access  the 
web  using  devices  such  as  mobile  phones 
and  PDAs.  More  web  developers  will  find 
themselves  needing  to  support  tiny 
browsers  that  present  a  few  lines  at  a  time. 

Finally,  both  ASP+and  the  .N  ET 
Framework  support  web  services.  This  is 
a  techniquefor  accessing  remote 
components  using  XM  L  over  HTTP  as  the 
protocol.  The  significance  of  web  services 
is  that  they  work  well  across  the  loosely 
coupled  network  that  is  the  Internet  and 
that  using  XM  Las  the  transport  enables 
you  to  use  components  running  on 
different  platforms  and  using  different 
object  technologies. 

To  some  extent  you  can  already  do 
this  using  CGI  scripts.  You  can  have  a 
Visual  Basic  application  make  an  HTTP 
connection  to  a  remote  website,  call  a 
CGI  script  and  make  use  of  the  results. 
You  can  do  so  without  needing  to  know 
whether  the  script  is  running  on 
Windows,  Macintosh  or  Unix,  or  whether 
the  script  is  written  in  Perl,  C,  or 
something  different.  What  web  services 
using  the  SOAP  (Simple  0  bject  Access 
Protocol)  do  is  to  enrich  this  process, 
adding  strong  typing,  the  ability  to 
discover  what  objects,  properties  and 
methodsareavailablein  published 
services  and  the  ability  to  write  code  for 
them  using  thesame  kind  of  techniques 
that  you  would  for  local,  native  objects. 

While  not  yet  a  released  product, 
ASP+is  not  entirely  vapourwareand 
preview  versions  are  already  being 
distributed  to  developers.  The  point  in 
writing  about  this  now  isto  give  direction 
to  current  ASP  development.  For 
websites  with  modest  traffic  and 
straightforward  dynamic  content,  simple 
ASP  scripts  work  well,  as  do  alternative 
technologies,  such  as  PH  P.  0  n  the  other 
hand,  forweb  applications  that  will  scale 


well  and  migrate  smoothly  to  the  next 
generation,  it  is  important  to  design 
using  components  from  the  beginning. 
Clearly  M  icrosoft  also  believes  that  web 
development  isthefutureand  that,  aside 
from  some  specialist  tasks  such  as  games 
programming  or  creating  device  drivers, 
most  applications  will  be  web 
applications.  I  am  inclined  to  agree, 
although  how  many  will  use  M  icrosoft's 
technologies  is  another  question. 

Using  a  menu  for  navigation 

Philip  Benson  asks:  'I  am  trying  to  create 
a  pull-down  menu  system  -  as  opposed 
to  a  hyperlinks  bar  -  for  navigation  to  the 
various  pages  of  a  website  I  am 
developing.  Could  you  please  tell  me  how 


to  do  this?  I  am  using  Frontpage  2000.' 

To  obtain  a  pull-down  menu  on  a 
form,  use  a  select  object.  This  does  not 
require  any  server-side  scripting,  as  it  can 
all  be  done  on  the  client.  You  can  see  an 
example  in  figure  1  below.  The  select 
object  has  option  elements,  each  of 
which  appears  in  the  menu.  Define  the 
onChange  attribute  to  handle  the  menu's 
Change  event  and  write  code  to  navigate 
to  the  requested  destination.  In 
Frontpage,  you  can  make  the  necessary 
edits  in  the  HTM  L  tab  of  the  document. 

The  Change  event  onlyfires  when 
the  selection  actually  changes.  This 
creates  a  problem,  sincethereisno  way 
to  select  the  default  option  without  first 
changing  it  to  something  else.  The 


FIG1  Code  for  a  navigation  menu 

<htm  L> 

<head> 

<title>Menu  examp L e</ t i t L e> 

<script  Language=" JavaScri pt "> 

< !  — 

function  GoThere ( navmenu )  { 

swi t ch (navmenu . se Lectedlndex)  { 

case  0 : 

break; 

case  1 : 

parent,  frames. targetframe. Location. replaces 
("http://www.itwriting.com/index.htmL") 
break; 
case  2 : 

parent. frames. targetframe. location. replaces 

("http://www.pcw.co.uk") 

break; 

def au  L  t : 

parent. frames. targetframe. Location. replaces 
("http://www.itwriting.com/index.html"); 

> 

> 

//— > 

</scri pt> 

</head> 

<body> 

<h1>Where  do  you  want  to  go?</h1> 

<form  name="navf orm"> 

<p><select  size="1"  name="GoWhere"  ✓ 
onChange="GoThere(this)"> 

<opt i on>Choose  a  des t i na t i on</opt i on> 

<option>PCW  home  page</opt i on> 

<opt i on>ITWr i t i ng  home  page</opt i on> 

</se  L  ect></p> 

<p>&nbsp;</p> 

</f orm> 

<p>&nbsp;</p> 

</body> 

<  /  h  t  m  L  >  (Key:  ✓  code  string  continues) 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  mi 


web  development 


workaround  isto  make  the  default 
option  a  dummy,  such  as  'Choose  where 
to  go'.  Another  possibility  is  to  have  a 
separate 'Go'  button  and  handle  its  Click 
event  instead. 

The  easiest  way  to  inspect  the  user's 
choice  is  to  pass  the  select  object  to  the 
script  function  using  'this'.  Then  you  can 
obtain  the  index  number  of  the  selection 
with  theselectedlndexpropertyand  the 
text  value  from  the  options  array.  U  nless 
you  are  happy  to  list  U  RLs  in  the  menu, 
use  a  switch  statement  to  navigate  to  the 
required  page.  Early  versions  of  JavaScript 
do  not  support  switch,  so  use  if 
statements  instead  when  the 
broadest  reach  is  needed. 

M  any  websites  like  to  keep 
hold  of  users.  If  you  want  to  keep 
the  menu  on  screen,  you  can 
either  have  the  new  page  appear 
in  a  separate  window,  or  else  use 
a  frameset  and  have  the  page 
show  in  a  separate  fra  me.  For 
example: 

wi ndow . locat i on  .  ✓ 
replace  ( "http : //✓ 
www . pew . co . uk" ) 

(Key:  ✓  code  string  continues) 
browses  to  the  new  location.  The 
menu  disappears  and  the  Back 
button  istheonlywayback. 
window. open(" http:/// 
www . pew . co . uk" ) 

creates  a  new  window  and  points  it  at  the 
new  location.  TheopenO  method  has 
some  handy  options.  A  fuller  syntaxis: 
windowvar  =  window. open-' 

(URL, name, features) 

Thenameoption  lets  you  assign  a 
name  that  you  can  use  with  the  target 
attribute  in  a  hyperlink.  The  features 
option  gives  extensive  control  over  the 
new  window's  appearance.  For  example: 
window. open(("http://www.^ 
pew. co.uk ","newwin",^ 

" left=200,top=200,^ 
height=300,width=200,^ 
location=no,toolbar=no,^ 
scroll ba  r s  =  yes "  ) 

This  opens  a  new  window  without 
any  toolbar  or  navigation  bar,  at  a  set 
position  and  with  scrollbars.  The  user  is 
unlikelyto  continuesurfingtheweb  from 
thenew  window,  so  will  probably  return 
to  your  menu  instead.  Alternatively,  here 
is  theframeset  approach: 
parent. frames. targetframe.^ 
location. replaceC"  http://-' 
www . pew .co.uk") 

In  this  code,  'targetframe'  is  the  value  of 


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the  name  attribute  defined  in  the 
frameset  page.  In  Frontpage  2000,  you 
can  edit  this  in  the 'Frames  Page  FI TM  L' 
tab.  Examples  of  all  these  options  are 
given  at  http://www.itwriting.com/pcw/ 
menu.html. 

Special  characters  in  ASP 

Bara  M  ustafa  asks:  'I  have  got  to  the 
stage  with  ASP  scripting  of  writing  files,  ie 
writing  HTM  L  files  via  a  script.  But  when 
I  am  trying  to  write  ASP  files  from  scratch 
via  ASP  I  don't  seem  to  be  able  to  use  the 
'<  '%',  '>'  and  other  characters  that  are 
needed.  An  example: 

Sub  CreateFi  le( ) 

Dim  f so,  t f 

Set  fso  =  Crea  teOb  j  ect-' 
("Scripting. Fi leSystem^ 
Object") 

Set  tf  =  f so.CreateTextFi  le^ 
("c:\testfile.txt".  True) 
tf. Write  ("This  is  a  test.") 
t f . C  lose 
End  Sub 

'My  problem  comes  when  I  wish  to 
write  a  line  such  as: 

tf.WriteLine  ("<%  blah  blah  ✓ 
blah  %>") 


A  bove:  In  Frontpage,  you  can  use  a  dialog 
to  create  a  select  menu.  It  is  just  as  easy  to 
do  so  in  code 

L  eft:  T his  approach  involves  opening  each 
link  in  a  new  window,  with  control  over  its 
size  and  position 

'As  the  %>  instantly  cuts  off  the  script 
and  the  server  thinks  that  is  the  end  of 
the  script  and  closes  it.' 

The  general  solution  to  this  kind  of 
problem  isto  usethechrQ  function.  For 
example,  instead  of  '%>'  you  could  write 
'%'  +chr(62).  This  will  be  written  to  the 
file  as  '%>'.  The  counterpart  of  chr()  is 
asc()  which  gives  you  the  numeric  value 
of  a  character.  Further,  ASP  will  only 
recognise  the  script  delimiters  if  they 
literally  occur  together.  Therefore,  you 
can  also  use: 

tf.WriteLine  ("<"  +  "%  blah  ✓ 
blah  blah  %"  +  ">") 

CONTACTS 

Tim  Anderson  welcomes  your  comments  on 

the  Web  Development  column.  Contact  him 

viathePCW  editorial  officeor email: 

webdev@pcw.co.uk 

For  further  information  on  Web  Forms  see 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/nextgen 

For  information  on  the  .N  ET  Framework  see 

http// msdn.microsoft.com/NET/default.asp 

Theguideto  using  components  in  ASP  isat 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/ 

server/  asp/  ser  verO  124000. asp 

The  menu  examples  can  befound  onlineat 

www.itwriting.com/pcw/menu.html 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


0  pening  ours 


N  igel  W  hitfield  is  dismayed  at  'pro'  webshops  and  gets  down  to  the  nitty  gritty  with  M  iniVend 


Cl 

■  Mr 1 1 


jmtvm 


|  T-HK  ■  P  J 


E  commerce  is,  we're  told,  all 
about  making  things  easier. 
It'sabout  making  it  simple 
to  compare  prices  and  get 
the  best  deal  for  the 
consumer.  And  one  of  the  areas  that's 
apparently  most  popular  when  people 
want  to  buy  things  online  is  insurance. 
It's  almost  the  perfect  product  for 
ecommerce-  you  can  fill  in  forms  online, 
send  your  payment  details  and  just  wait 
forthepolicydocumentsto  drop 
through  the  door. 

Well,  that's  how  it  should  work,  but 
when  mycar 
insurance  renewal 
was  due,  I  tried  the 
Internet  approach 
and  found  it  a 
thoroughly 
frustrating 
experience.  Bad 
luck,  perhaps. 

Certainly  some  bad 
programming  and 
shoddy  sites. 

One  site 

insisted  that  there 
was  no  Flat  1  at  my 
postcode,  while 
another  had  an 
applet  that  doesn't 
work  properly  with 
Internet  Explorer  on 
the  Mac,  meaning  I 
had  to  switch  over  to 
Netscape.  And  then  sometimes  it 
couldn'tfind  thedetailsof  thecar 
registration  I  entered.  The  end  result?  I 
gaveup  on  onlineinsuranceand  phoned 
my  old  broker  -  and  got  a  better  deal 
out  of  it. 

If  even  peoplewho  writeabout 
ecommerce  find  sites  frustrating  to  use, 
what  hopeistherefortheordinary 
punter?  M  y  advice:  learn  your  lessons 
from  bad  websites  and  do  things 
d  ifferen t ly.  M  a ke  su  re  yo  u r  site  wo rks  o  n 
all  major  browsers  and  platforms.  Don't 
overwhelm  peoplewith  theamountof 
information  you  request  and  if  you're 
providing  shortcuts,  like  using  postcode 
information  to  speed  address  input, 
makedamn  sure  they  work  properly. 


2 


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directlme.com 


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M  iniVend  is  free,  but  has  plenty  of  features.  It  can  also  take  quite  a 
while  to  get  to  grips  with 


Building  your  own  site 

A  month  ago,  I'd  have  said  that  advice 
comes  in  the  'teaching  granny  to  suck 
eggs'  category,  but  after  my  recent 
experiences,  I'm  not  so  sure. 

So,  without  further  ado,  let's  carry  on 
where  we  left  off  last  time,  with  a  promise 
to  lookat  howto  start  building  your 
website  using  a  couple  of  ecommerce 
applications:  Shop@ssistant  and 
M  iniVend. 

Thetwo  are  very  different  in  concept. 
M  iniVend  is  a  much  more  technical 
solution  -  although  you  could,  as  the 
FAQ  pages  suggest,  simplytakethe 
sample  catalogue  that  comes  with  it  and 
change  the  text  and  images  to  make 
yourown. 


Left:  Direct  Line's 
applet  doesn't  work 
properly  with 
Internet  Explorer 
on  the  Mac.  Make 
sure  you  test  your 
site  on  multiple 
platforms 

Shop  (Assistant 
is  probably  easier 
to  get  to  grips  with 
and  if  you  design 
your  pages  with 
NetO  bjects  Fusion, 
you  can  also 
download  objects 
that  can  be 
inserted  directly  in  Fusion,  for  tasks  such 
as  'add  to  basket'  and  'go  to  checkout'. 

The  systems  do  have  some  things  in 
common  -  they  work  on  the  basis  of 
catalogue  pages,  featuring  items  with  an 
accompanying  button  or  linkto  add  to  a 
shopping  basket.  That'sthesimplepart. 

The  hard  part  of  the  shopping  system 
is  tracking  a  user  from  one  page  to 
another  within  thesite-  maintaining  a 
session.  You  may,  for  example,  have 
multiple  simultaneous  requests  coming 
to  your  website  from  the  same  IP  address 
-  but  that  doesn't  mean  that  they're 
necessarily  the  same  person.  It  could  be  a 
firewall  or  proxy  server.  Oneofthemain 
tasks  of  the  shopping  system  is  to  keep 
track  of  information  from  one  page 
request  to  the  next. 

Browser-based  baskets 

The  approach  used  by  Shop@ssisant  is 
to  keep  much  of  the  intelligence  in  the 
web  browser.  When  you  enter  a  site, 
you'll  actually  be  visiting  a  frameset,  with 
hidden  frames  containing  JavaScript 
which  sets  up  the  necessary  functions 
in  your  web  browser  to  control 
theshopping. 

This  means  that  you  also  need 
scripts  on  all  the  other  pages  to  ensure 
that  if  someone  comes  directly  to  one  of 
them  -  perhaps  via  a  bookmark-  all 
the  necessary  scripts  are  loaded 
automatically. 

Sinceall  of  the  processing-  up  until 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


thefinal  submission  of  the  transaction  - 
is  handled  in  the  web  browser,  session 
management  is  fairly  simple.  But  you  will 
be  restricting  your  site  to  browsers  that 
support  frames  and  JavaScript.  While 
that's  most  of  the  major  desktop  ones, 
the  same  isn't  true  of  the  cut-down  web 
browsers  used  on  some  handheld  devices 
and  may  not  be  true  on  some  set-top 
boxes,  either. 

Server  sessions 

M  iniVend  handles  sessions  itself  in  a  way 
that  most  people  will  befamiliarwith.  By 
appending  unique  identifiers  on  U  RLs 
and  in  the  links  within  pages,  the  server 
can  besurethata  request  fora 
particular  page  has  been  generated  by  a 
certain  visitor. 

This  allows  information  to  be  stored 
on  the  server  and  updated  dynamically  if 
necessary.  If  they're  available,  cookies  are 
used  instead,  so  that  the  displayed  URLs 
aren't  quiteas  complicated. 

To  do  this,  however,  M  iniVend  can't 
rely  on  static  pages.  Instead,  it  runs  as  a 
CGI  program  on  your  web  server  and 
filters  all  your  pages,  looking  for  its  own 
tags  and  substituting  them  with 
appropriate  information.  To  distinguish 
them  from  HTML  tags,  they're  in 
square  brackets. 

You  can  use  M  iniVend  with  a  simple 
link  added  to  existing  static  pages  -  but 
you'll  lose  most  of  the  benefits  of  the 
system  if  you  do. 


If  you  use  an  HTML  editor,  you'll  need  to  mark  M  iniVend  tags  so 
that  they're  not  altered.  In  some,  that  means  you  might  not  see 
all  the  text  on  your  page  in  preview  mode 


M  akefile.PL  to  build  the  makefile,  and 
then  follow  the  instructions  to  install  and 
configure  the  software. 

The  compile  link  program  in  the 
M  iniVend  bin  directory  creates  the  vlink 
CGI  program  that's  used  to  extract  pages 
from  the  catalogue.  You'll  need  to  install 
this  program  in  your  web  server's  CGI 
directory.  There's  not  space  hereto  detail 
all  the  steps,  but  they  are  covered  in  the 
M  iniVend  documentation. 

To  start  making  your  site,  you  need  to 
separate  the  pages  of  your  site  into  static 
pages  and  catalogue  pages;  M  iniVend 
puts  all  the  catalogue  pages  in  a  separate 


My  advice:  learn  your  lessons 
from  bad  websites  and 
do  things  differently 


M  iniVend  will  require  much  more 
work  to  set  up,  tagging  pages  by  hand 
and  configuring  the  server  to  run  the 
CGI  program  that  filters  your  catalogue  - 
but  it  will  mean  that  your  site  should 
becompatiblewith  a  broader  range 
of  web  browsers. 

Get  started  with  M  iniVend 

The  current  version  of  M  iniVend  can  be 
downloaded  from  www.minivend.com;  if 
you  want  to  test  a  site  using  Perl  on 
Windows,  you'll  need  the  previous 
version.  A  new  release  with  more  features 
is  due  later  in  2000. 

You  can  download  the  package  from 
the  M  iniVend  site  and  then  run  the 
installer  script  -  on  Unix,  just  type  perl 


location,  so  that  they  can  befound  by 
the  server  application. 

You  mightwonderaboutthewisdom 
of  this-  but  it'sprobablya  good  idea  to 
split  up  your  site  like  this  anyway.  It'll  be 
easier  for  different  people  to  work  on  the 
static  and  dynamic  parts  of  the  site. 

Not  everyone  who  visits  will  want  to 
buy,  after  all.  There  are  other  things,  such 
as  support,  or  information,  that  can 
easily  be  kept  away  from  the  sales  side, 
and  should  beeasilyaccessibleto 
all  visitors. 

Your  first  catalogue 

When  a  page  is  requested  from 
M  iniVend,  it's  read  from  the  pages 
subdirectory  of  the  catalogue  and  tags 


are  replaced.  This  is 
one  of  the  areas 
where  it's  easiest  to 
get  into  most  trouble 
with  M  iniVend  if  you 
don't  read  the 
documentation 
carefully. 

First,  if  you're 
using  a  web  editor  to 
design  your  pages, 
you'll  need  to 
check  whether  or  not 
you  can  tell  it  to 
ignoreHTM  Lcode- 
in  some  pages, 
there's  a  special 
'NOEDIT' tag. 

Next,  if  you're 

_  using  drag  and  drop, 

you'll  almost  certainly 
need  to  manually  edit  U  RLs  after  links 
have  been  created  in  the  package.  That's 
because,  to  ensure  the  session  tracking 
works,  a  reference  to  a  URL  has  to  pass 
through  the  M  iniVend  server. 

You  might  design  a  page  for  a 
SuperWidget,  with  a  linkto  the 
accessories  page,  like  this: 

<P>Do  you  want  to  order  any 
<A  HRE F="wi dg_acc . htm L"> 
accessories  </A>  for  your 
SuperWi dget ?</P> 

Assuming  your  web  editor  respects 
<N 0 EDIT >and  </NOEDIT>tags,  you'll 
then  need  to  edit  the  HTM  L  to  look  like 
this,  instead: 

<N0E  D I T> 

<P>Do  you  want  to  order  any 
[page  widg_acc]  accessories 
[/page]  for  your 
SuperWi dget ?</P> 

</N0EDIT> 

You  can  replace  the  [/page]  with  a 
standard  HTM  L  </A>tag.  Note  that  the 
.html  extension  is  missed  off  in  the 
M  iniVend  tag.  Onequickwayto  do  some 
of thisworkmaybebycareful  useof  a 
search/ replacefunction  in  a  text  editor  to 
swap  HTM  L for  M  iniVend  tags. 

We'll  comebackto  moreon 
M  iniVend  next  month,  and  take  a  look  at 
getting  started  with  Shop@ssitant. 

CONTACTS 

Nigel  Whitfield  welcomes  your  comments  on 
the  Ecommerce  column.  Contact  him  via  the 
PCW  editorial  office  or  email 

ecommerce@pcw.co.uk 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Developing  areas 

M  icrosoft  offers  free  CE  tools  and  gives  a  helping  handheld  to  refugees,  says  Mark  Whitehorn 


There's  an  ongoing  power 
struggle  between  Palm, 
Psion  and,  inthethird 
corner,  M  icrosoft  with  a 
bunch  of  hardware 
manufacturers,  such  as  Casio  and 
Hewlett-Packard.  The  victorious 
platform  will  betheoneon  which  it  is 
quickest  and  easiest  to  develop 
applications.  This  is  because,  as 
corporates  start  buying  PDAs  in  bulk,  it 
will  become  much  more  important  for 
them  to  beableto  easilydevelop 
commercial  applications  involving  the 
collection  and  distribution  of  data. 

To  do  thisyou  need  someform  of 
database  engine,  rapid  and  accurate 
communication  with  centralised 
PC/server  hardware  and  decent  visual 
programming  tools.  Pocket  PC  still 
undersells  the  other  players  bya  wide 
margin,  but  M  icrosoft  has  put  together  a 
really  workable  package  to  give 
corporates  what  they  want  and  need. 

A  spontaneous  illustration  of  this 
occurred  at  M  icrosoft'sTechEd 
conference,  from  which  I  havejust 
returned.  The  keynote  presentation 
described  M  icrosoft's  Europe-based 
work  with  UNHCR  (United  Nations  High 
Commissioner  for  Refugees).  In  a  close 
partnership  with  hardware  suppliers, 

M  icrosoft  has  developed  a  PC-based 
system  for  tracking  refugees,  with  the 
goal  of  reuniting  families. 

Refugees  are  registered  and  issued 
with  a  photo/barcode  identity  card  to 
be  shown  at  food  and  equipment 
distribution  points.  Information 
gathered  about  a  refugee's  location  is 
then  used  to  reunite  them  with  friends 
and  family.  This  whole  project  sprung 
not  from  M  icrosoft  H  Q  in  Seattle,  but 
from  people  within  M  icrosoft  Europe 
who  started  asking  what  they,  personally, 
could  do  to  help. 

Attending  the  presentation  was  a 
Pocket  PC  team  who,  again  as  individuals, 
wanted  to  contribute.  During  the  four-day 
conference,  in  addition  to  its  already  full 
remit,  the  team  put  together  a  complete 
Pocket  PC  application  to  enhance  the 
refugee-tracking  abilities  of  the  existing, 
highly  successful,  PC-based  system. 


today 


g  Wo  taste 


hrid-ay,  July  thrrZL!Oii 


f 

% 


% 
Ji 

A? 


Screenshot  2 


This  Pocket  PC  application,  which  helps  track  refugees,  was  developed  at  high  speed 


In  conflict-torn  areas  with  non¬ 
existent  infrastructures,  it  is  often 
impossibleto  keep  data  at  the  PC 
stations  up  to  date,  as  there  are  not 
enough  PCsto  equip  everydistribution 
point.  Given  a  satellite  phone  link,  the 
Pocket  PCs  can  send  data  almost 
instantaneously  to  the  PCs  and  thus 
present  a  much  more  accurate  picture  to 
those  endeavouring  to  reunite  families. 

An  extra  presentation,  slipped  in  as 
the  conference  closed,  outlined  what  had 
been  achieved.  Impressively,  (given  the 
company's  track  record!)  Microsoft 
stressed  the  plight  of  refugees  of  conflicts 
the  world  over  without  pointing  out  its 
own  cleverness.  In  fact,  it  took  some 
digging  to  get  the  people  involved  to 
talkaboutthetoolstheyhad  used. 
Nevertheless,  the  results  show  that  rapid 
application  development  is  now  a  reality 
on  the  Pocket  PC  (screenshots  1  and  2). 

Tools  of  the  trade 

The  catchy  name  of  M  icrosoft  eM  bedded 
Visual  Tools  3.0  is  applied  to  M  icrosoft's 
development  tools  for  its  Pocket  PC  and 
other  sub-W  indows  platforms.  These 
tools  are  available  free  (except  for 
postage  and  packaging)  from  M  icrosoft. 

Thetwo-CD  set  contains  all  kinds  of 
stuff,  including: 

•  eM  bedded  Visual  C++3.0 

•  eM  bedded  Visual  Basic  3.0 

•  Software  Development  Kits  (SDKs)  for 


Handheld  PC  Professional  Edition  3.0, 
Palm-size  PC  1.2  and  Pocket  PC 

•  ActiveTemplate  Library  (ATL)  for 
WindowsCE 

•  Driver  Development  Kit  (DDK) 

•  M  icrosoft  Foundation  Classes  (M  FC) 
forWindowsCE. 

So,  something  for  everyone  (except 
for  Palm  and  Psion  users)  there.  The 
latest  product  and  technical  information 
is  to  be  found  at  www.microsoft.com/ 
windowsce/ embedded. 

Looking  at  the  above  list,  which 
appears  to  mention  four  different 
platforms,  it  is  apparent  that  M  icrosoft's 
naming  conventions  for  sub-Windows 
operating  systems  is  as  clear  as  mud.  I 
asked  Adam  Anger,  M  icrosoft's  business 
managerforWindowsCE,  to  siftthesilt. 

Confusion  arose,  he  said,  because 
W  indows  CE  was  running  as  the 
operating  system  on  mobile  devices  and 
was  also  the  operating  system  aimed  at 
developers  of  customised  devices. 

'People  were  getting  confused  when  we 
released  a  new  version  of  the  operating 
system,  thinking  that  it  meant  you 
needed  a  new  version  of  the  Handheld 
PC  software  or  that  the  Handheld  PC 
software  had  changed  to  some  degree.' 

H  e  explained  that  M  icrosoft 
introduced  the  'W indows  CE-Powered' 
brand  for  handheld  PCs  (devices  with  a 
keyboard)  and  for  palm-sized  PCs 
(keyboard less,  PDA-type  devices).  It  was 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


felt  the  time  had  come  to  differentiate 
between  consumer-oriented  or 
corporate-oriented  devices  -  Handheld 
and  Pocket  PCs  -  and  the  developers  who 
will  develop  custom  devices  with  the 
embedded  operating  system. 

The  naming  convention  is  now  based 
upon  the  categories  of  hardware  that  use 
the  M  icrosoft  M  obile  Devices  software. 
These  are  the  W  indows-Powered  Pocket 
PC,  which  is  the  PDA-sized  device,  and 
theWindows-Powered  Handheld  PC 
which  is  the  H  andheld  PC  that's  available 
now  and  that  M  icrosoft  says  it  will 
continueto  develop  in  thefuture. 

Both  platforms  make  use  of  the 
Windows  CE  3.0  operating  system: 

M  icrosoft  decided 
that  keeping  the 
Windows  name 
was  important 
because  users  were 
aware  that 
synchronisation  of 
data  between 
mobileand  desk¬ 
bound  devices  was 
an  important 
feature.  So,  using 
thefamiliar 
Windows  nameon 
both  machines 
signalled  this 
feature  clearly.  Yep, 
clear  as  mud. 


Your  IlFe. 
ur  style. 

HP  jOTiodd.  540  Series 
Color  FCi 


fjOtiWTiria 

«* 

jA 

m 

B Ltfcfete 

C±ri: 
Chao c 

Ft*D(f 

3 

A 

s 

Fife* 

GOfTYTUtd- 

Rsc-Hn 

SC#  ME 

a 

y 

Stock 
Bciaff tta 

cr 

EOCktf 

r  . 

—  **  ft 

Screenshot  4 


Stylus  horribilus 

I've  recently  been  playing  with  a  Hewlett- 
Packard  Jornada  540  Pocket  PC  and  I 
could  be  showing  the  early  symptoms  of 
another  love  affair.  It's  a  neat  and  stylish 
handful  of  an  appealing  size  and  weight, 
a  great  colour  screen  and  handwriting- 
recognition 
software  of 
impressive 
accuracy,  making 
more  sense  of  my 
spideryhand  than 
most  humans  do. 

Furthermore, 
the  540  plays 
M  P3sand  has  a 
diverting  range  of 
games.  The  only 
niggleisthe 
amazinglyhorrible 
stylus,  which  is  far 
too  short  and  far 
too  light.  But  that 
doesn't  worry  the 


people  in  screenshot  3,  who  are  clearly  as 
pleased  as  I  am  with  the  product. 

Games  galore 

There's  a  pleasing  upsurge  in  the  number 
of  games  availablefor  the  Pocket  PC.  I'm 
not  reticent  in  the  least  about  playing 
games:  waiting  for  a  mode  of  transport 
to  materialise  is  much  more  pleasant  in 


■  *  r  .  i 


I&iiiiiIv  I 


-JH iZi.iZ.'ir  .  . 


-hH  J  It-HIi'-bui 


Screenshot  6 


You  can  drive  your  television  from  your  Psion ! 


L  eft:  W  ell,  I  like  the  Jornada 
as  well,  but  these  people... 

B  elow:  T here's  a  great  range 
of  games  available 

thecompanyof  colourful 
Bubblets  or  manic  Pac-M  an 
-  yes,  the  chomping  smiley 
face  has  staged  a  welcome 
come-back. 

Thejornada  mentioned 
above  was  borrowed  finery, 
on  loan  from  Microsoft, 
and  it  had  a  fine  range  of 
games  installed  (screenshot 
4).  There's  a  golf  game  that 
you  can  get  at  www.ziosoft. 
com  (screenshot  5)  and 
several  shoot-'em-upssuch  as  Cubicle 
Chaos  and  Killer  Commute.  These  last 
three  can  be  found  on  the  M  icrosoft 
M  obile  Games  Pack.  M  y  favourite  is 
Fire  Drill:  to  the  sound  effect  of 
crackling  flames  you  scurry  round  an 
office  extinguishing  colleagues'  desks 
that  spontaneously  ignite. 

TV  control 

An  issue  or  so  ago  I  said  that,  at 
present,  it  doesn't  appear  possible  to 
use  your  Psion  to  control  your 
television.  However,  once  more  the 
PDA  community  has  raced  ahead  of 
meand  'been  there,  donethat'. 

Several  peoplesentemailonthe 
subject,  including  Dipen  Lad 
(dlad@iname.com),  who  pointed  meto 
a  program  called  S5TV  on  John  Pollock's 
site  (screenshot  6)  at  www.geocities. 
com/jpollock_2000/  infrared.htm. 

Thanks  to  everyone  who  wrote  in. 

Crumbs! 

If  you  read  thejuly  column  you'll 
probably  recall  M  rToastand  his 
wondrous  periodic  table  of  elements  for 
thePsion  5.  Ifyou'rean  Osarisowner 
and  have  been  feeling  disadvantaged  by 
your  inability  to  benefit  from  this 
scientific  breakthrough,  M  rToast  asks 
you  to  contact  him.  If  there  is  sufficient 
interest,  a  version  for  the  0  saris  might  be 
forthcoming.  The  address  you  need  is 
mrtoast@dialstart.net. 


CONTACTS 

M  ark  Whitehorn  welcomes  your  comments 
on  the  PDA  column.  Contact  him  via  the PCl/l/ 
editorial  office  or  email  pda@pcw.co.uk 


|T|]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Doing  the  SAN  thing 

Roger  Gann  looks  into  the  pros  and  cons  of  installing  a  bit  of  SAN-ity  into  your  network 


As  companies  rely  moreand 
moreonecommerce, 
online-transaction 
processing  and  databases, 
the  amount  of  information 
that  needs  to  be  managed  and  stored  on  a 
network  can  intimidate  even  the  most 
experienced  of  network  managers. 

While  servers  do  a  good  job  of  storing 
data,  their  capacity  is  limited  and  they 
can  become  a  bottleneck  if  too  many 
users  try  to  access  the  same  information. 
Instead,  most  companies  rely  on 
peripheral  storage  devices,  such  as  tape 
libraries,  RAID  disks  and  even  optical 
storage  systems.  These  devices  are 
effective  for  backing  up  data  onlineand 
storing  large  amounts  of  information. 

But  as  server  farms  increase  in  size 
and  companies relymoreheavilyon 
data-intensive applications,  such  as 
multimedia,  thetraditional  storage 
model  isn't  quite  as  useful.  This  is 
because  access  to  these  peripheral 
devices  can  be  slow,  and  it  might 
not  always  be  possible  for  every 
userto  easilyand  transparently 
access  each  storage 
device.  One  way  out 
of  this  seeming  cul- 
de-sac  is  the 
Storage  Area 
Network  (SAN). 

The  most  basic  way  of 
expanding  storage  capacity  on 
the  network  is  to  hang  disk  arrays 
or  other  storage  devices  off  servers, 
using  the  SCSI  interface  or  bus.  SCSI 
has  gone  through  a  number  of  changes 
over  the  years,  especially  the  speed  the 
interface  supports.  Initially  designed  to 
handle  speeds  of  5M  bytes/ sec,  it 
supports  a  throughput  rate  of 
160M  bytes/ sec  in  its  current  iteration, 
Ultra3  SCSI.  Within  the U Itra3 
specification  is  a  subset  implementation, 
Ultral60  SCSI,  that'sgaining  popularity 
among  SCSI  vendors,  as  well  as  server 
and  workstation  manufacturers. 

While  SCSI  has  been  a  workhorse 
over  the  years  for  connecting  peripherals 
at  a  relativelyfast  speed,  distance 
limitations  have  kept  this  particular  bus 
interface  from  evolving  rapidly.  The  SCSI 


standards  put  a  bus  length  limit  of  about 
6m  on  devices.  Whilethisdistance 
limitation  doesn't  reallyaffect 
connecting  storage  devices  directly  to  a 
server,  it  does  severely  restrict  placing 
RAID  and  tape  libraries  at  other  points 
on  the  network. 

Enter  the  NAS 

This  is  where  the  concept  of  Network 
Attached  Storage  (NAS) 
comesin.  NASissimplein 
concept  and  execution: 
disk  arrays  and  other 
storage  devices 
connect  to  the 
network 
through  a 


RAID  is 
commonly 
used  in  SAN 
installations 

traditional  LAN  interface, 
such  as  Ethernet.  Storage  devices 
would  thus  attach  to  network  hubs, 
^  much  the  same  as  servers  and 
other  network  devices.  However, 
NAS  does  have  a  few  drawbacks. 

First,  network  bandwidth  places 
throughput  limitations  on  the  storage 
devices.  Most  NAS  servers  are  placed  on 
10M  bits/ sec  or  100M  bits/ sec  Ethernet 
LANs,  but  even  if  a  network  is  running  at 
Gigabit  speeds,  most  NAS  vendors  today 
only  offer  interfaces  up  to  Fast  Ethernet. 

Another  downside  to  NAS  is  the  lack 
of  cohesion  among  storage  devices. 
While  disk  arrays  and  tape  drives  are  on 
the  LAN,  managing  the  devices  can  prove 
challenging,  since  they  are  separate 
entities  and  are  not  logically  tied 


together.  NAS  has  its  placeas  a  viable 
storage  architecture,  but  large 
companies  need  something  more. 

Mr  SAN  man 

Large  enterprises  that  want  the  ability  to 
store  and  manage  large  amounts  of 
information  in  a  high-performance 
environment  now  have  another  option: 
theSAN.  In  a  SAN,  storage  devices  such 
as  Digital  LinearTapes(DLTs)  and  RAID 
arrays  are  connected  to  many  kinds  of 
servers  via  a  high-speed  interconnection, 
such  asFibreChannel. 

This  high-speed  link  creates  a 
separate,  external  network  that's 
connected  to  the  LAN ,  but  acts 
as  an  independent  entity. 

This  setup  allows  for  any-to- 
anycommunication  among 
all  devices  on  the  SAN .  It  also 
provides  alternative  paths  from 
server  to  storage  device. 

In  other  words,  if  a  particular  server  is 
slow  orcompletelyunavailable,  another 
server  on  theSAN  can  provide  access  to 
the  storage  device.  A  SAN  also  makes  it 
possible  to  mirror  data,  making  multiple 
copies  available. 

SAN  softer  several  advantages.  First, 
they  allow  for  the  addition  of  bandwidth 
without  burdening  the  main  LAN.  SANs 
also  make  it  easier  to  conduct  online 
backups  without  users  feeling  the 
bandwidth  pinch.  When  more  storage  is 
needed,  additional  drives  do  not  need  to 
be  connected  to  a  specific  server;  rather, 
they  can  simplybeadded  to  thestorage 
network  and  accessed  from  any  point. 

Another  reason  for  the  interest  in 
SAN  s  is  that  all  the  devices  can  be 
centrally  managed.  Instead  of  managing 
the  network  on  a  per-device  basis, 
storage  can  be  managed  as  a  single 
entity,  making  it  easier  to  deal  with 
storage  networks  that  could  potentially 
consist  of  dozens  or  even  hundreds  of 
servers  and  devices. 

Planning  a  SAN 

M  ercifully,  installing  a  SAN  doesn't  entail 
scrapping  your  current  storage  infra¬ 
structure.  A  good  SAN  strategy  is  to  add 
SAN  functionality  to  your  existing 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


systems,  which  you  can  do  byadding 
SAN  adaptors  to  servers  and  using 
bridge-like  devices  to  move  older  storage 
systems  onto  your  SAN .  N  ew  storage 
subsystems  can  usually  be  upgraded  to 
include  SAN  functionality. 

Implementing  a  SAN  is,  of  course, 
very  different  from  implementing 
traditional  storage.  Any  individual  server 
is  much  less  important  than  the 
physical  SAN  network,  thestorage 
devices  that  attach  to  it  and  the 
management  tools  that 
provide  access  to  data. 

Thefirst  building 
blocks  of  your  SAN  are 
storage  units,  which  can 
be  the  existing  SCSI 
devices  in  your  servers, 
such  as  disks,  RAID  or 
tape  libraries.  The  next 
pieces  are  servers.  Existing 
servers  can  probably  be 
integrated  into  a  SAN  and 
plans  should  includeSAN 
compatibility.  You  can 
connect  almost  any 
modern  server  to  a  SAN, 
because  SAN -support  hardware 
and  software  spans  most  PC  midrange 
and  mainframe  platforms.  Ideally,  a  SAN 
will  lighten  your  server's  workload  by 
offloading  manystorage-related  server 
tasks  to  the  SAN  and  by  better  allocating 
storage  resources  to  servers. 

Plenty  of  fibre 

The  most  important  piece  of  any  SAN 
architecture  is  the  underlying  network 
technology  that  drives  it.  You  can  use 
ordinary  Fast  Ethernet,  but  Fibre  Channel 
is  emerging  as  the  technology  of  choice 
for  SAN  implementations.  Fibre  Channel 
was  developed  by  AN  SI  in  the  early  1990s 
as  a  means  to  transfer  large  amounts  of 
data  very  quickly.  Fibre  Channel  is 
compatiblewith  SCSI,  IP,  IEEE  802.2, 
ATM  Adaptation  Layer  for  computer 
data,  and  Link  Encapsulation,  and  it  can 
be  used  over  copper  cabling  or  fibre- 
optic  cable. 

Fibre  Channel  supports  several 
configurations,  including  point-to-point 
and  switched  topologies.  SANs  based  on 
Fibre  Channel  may  start  out  as  a  group 
of  server  systems  and  storage  devices 
connected  by  Fibre  Channel  adaptors  to 
a  network.  As  the  storage  network  grows, 
hubs  can  be  added  and  as  SANs  grow 
further  in  size,  Fibre  Channel  switches 
can  be  incorporated. 


Thestandard  will  probablybethe 
Fibre  Channel  Arbitrated  Loop  (FC-AL), 
which  can  connect  as  many  as  126 
devices  and  moves  data  at 
100M  bytes/ sec  (soon  to  be 
400M  bytes/ sec).  Cable  lengths  are 
impressive  under  FC-AL  -  30m  over 


D  igital  L  inear  Tape  drives  can 
be  connected  to  servers  via 
high-speed  Fibre  C  hannel 


copper  and  10km  over  fibre. 

Now  that's  what  I  call  a  WideArea 
Network! 

At  the  moment  that's  all  theory-  the 
current  lack  of  standard  SAN- 
management  tools  forces  you  to  keep 
your  SAN  as  compact  as  possible, 
although  you  could  use  the  extra 
distance  to  attach  theodd  client 
machine  that  could  benefit  from  a  direct 
connection  to  the  SAN. 

Planning  is  key  and  the  network  has 
to  be  correctly  specified  and  installed. 
Don't  forget  that 'Loop'  is  an  important 
word  here  -  break  the  circle  and  you 
break  the  SAN.  To  makeyourSAN 
circuit,  you  will  need  to  use  Fibre  Channel 
hubs  or  switches.  These  devices  instantly 
patch  any  breaks  in  the  loop  and  prevent 
a  failure  from  bringing  down  the  entire 
circuit.  In  addition,  you  can  build  fault 
tolerance  into  your  SAN  by  creating 
multiple  loops. 

As  you  begin  to  implement  a  SAN,  it 
p ays  to  i n terf a ce  your  existing  sto rage. 
You  can  do  this  with  bridges  that  connect 
SCSI  devices  directly  to  Fibre  Channel 


networks  and  gateways  that  connect 
Ethernet  networks  to  Fibre  Channel 
networks.  It's  also  possible  to  upgrade 
some  devices,  such  as  tape  libraries,  from 
SCSI  to  Fibre  Channel  interfaces.  On  the 
server  hardware,  most  vendors  offer  the 
host  bus  adaptors  (H  BAs)  needed  to 
bring  a  system  onto  a  Fibre  Channel 
SAN .  You  also  need  to  give  workstations 
on  your  normal  LAN  network  access  to 
the  SAN  as  well. 

You  might  want  to  investigate  storage 
management  software  at  this  point,  such 
as  hierarchical  storage  management. 

This  lets  you  shift  data  from  faster  to 
slower  media  as  its  frequency  of  use 
decreases  -  there's  little  point  in  having 
rarely  used  archive  material  available 
over  the  SAN.  Other  software  allows 
you  to  map  large  storage  devices,  such 
as  disk  arrays  and  tape  libraries,  to 
virtual  file  systems  on  servers,  eliminating 
many  of  the  server  hardware  limits 

imposed  on  storage. 
Many  backup 
software  vendors, 
including  Legato 
and  Veritas,  now 
support  SAN 
architectures  in 
their  products  and 
typically  connect 
with  other  storage 
management  software 
to  make  backups 
as  flexible  as  possible.  After  all,  you 
wantyourSAN  system  to  have  enough 
intelligence  to  beableto  backup  a 
storage  device  directly  to  a  tape  library 
without  having  to  go  through 
intermediary  servers. 

As  you  go  through  what  may  be  a 
slow  process  of  moving  towards  a  SAN , 
you  will  almost  certainly  experience  the 
hiccups  associated  with  any  new 
technology.  But  keep  in  mind  that  most 
ofthecomponentsof  a  SAN,  including 
RAID,  storage  libraries  and  storage 
management  software,  are  mature 
technologies  which  areonlynow  coming 
into  their  prime. 

Roger  Gann  welcomes  your  comments  on  the 

N  etworks  column.  Contact  him  via  thePCl/1/ 

editorial  office  or  email: 

networks@pcw.co.uk 

For  more  information  on  building  a  SAN ,  visit 

www.fibrechannel.com  and  www.snia.org 


|J|  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


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Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  fcT| 


Buying  advice 


PERSONAL 

COMPUTER 


WORLD 


Buyers'  Charter 


MAIL  ORDER  PROTECTION  SCHEME  (MOPS) 

When  you  order  goods  as  a  private  individual  reader  from  a  UK  supplier's  advertisement  in 
Personal  Computer  World  and  pay  by  post  in  advance  of  delivery  to  that  M  ail  Order  Advertiser, 
which  subsequently  ceases  to  trade  and  goes  into  Liquidation  or  Bankruptcy  prior  to  delivery  of 
such  goods,  you  may,  under  the  'Buyers'  Charter',  qualify  for  compensation,  providing: 

1.  You  have  not  received  the  goods  or  had  your  money  returned. 

2.  You  have  followed  thePersona/  Computer  W orld  guidelines  when  placing  your  order  (see  opposite). 

3.  You  have  taken  all  reasonable  steps  to  effect  delivery  or  refund. 

4.  You  have  retained  irrefutable  proof  of  purchase,  for  verification  purposes: 

a)  A  copy  of  the  original  advertisement  from  which  the  goods  were  ordered. 

b)  C  omprehensive  proof  of  payment. 

GUIDELINES 

Claims  must  be  submitted  so  as  to  arrive 'NOT  EARLIER  THAN  TWENTY-EIGHT  DAYS  AND 
NOT  LATER  THAN  THREE  MONTHS'  from  the  official  on-sale  date  of  the  magazine.  Claims 
must  be  submitted  to  the  Customer  Services  M  a nager  IN  WRITING,  summarising  the  situation 
and  lodged  strictly  within  the  time  schedule  stated.  Claims  received  outside  this  period  will  not  qualify  for 
consideration  for  compensation  under  the ' Buyers'  Charter'. 

0  nee  a  supplier  who  has  advertised  in  this  magazine  has  become  subject  to  either  Liquidation  or 
Bankruptcy  proceedings  and  upon  completion  of  all  winding-up  procedures,  Personal  Computer 
World  guarantees  to  expeditiously  process  those  private  individual  readers'  claims  made  and  sub¬ 
mitted,  in  accordance  with  those  procedures  outlined,  up  to  the  following  limits. 

a)  £2,000  in  respect  of  any  claim  submitted  by  one  Private  Individual  Reader. 

b)  £100,000  in  respect  of  all  advertisers  so  affected  in  any  one  year. 

These  sums  define  the  Publisher's  maximum  liability  under  the  scheme,  and  any  additional  pay¬ 
ments  above  and  beyond  these  thresholds  will  be  entirely  at  the  Publisher's  discretion. 

As  soon  as  legal  confirmation  that  a  state  of  liquidation  or  bankruptcy  exists,  the  processing  of 
claims  will  immediately  commence.  If,  however,  assets  are  available  and  the  receiver/  liquidator 
appointed  confirms  that  an  eventual  payment  will  be  made  by  way  of  a  dividend,  all  claims  under 
the  'Buyers'  Charter'  will  be  subject  to  reprocessing  and  will  take  into  account  any  shortfall  which 
may  then  exist.  Payments  under  the  scheme  will  also  take  into  consideration  the  obligations  and 
liabilities  of  other  interested  parties,  such  as  credit  card  and/or  insurance  organisations,  etc. 

EXCEPTIONS 

This  guarantee  only  applies  to  advance  postal  payments  made  by  private  individuals  in  direct  response  for 
goods  itemised/ illustrated  in  display  advertisements.  It  does  not  cover  goods  ordered  from  advertising 
Inserts  or  Cards,  classified  advertisements  or  M  icroM  art,  or  Catalogues  obtained  from,  or  supplied 
by,  any  advertiser  regardless.  Similarly  protection  does  not  exist  in  relation  to  purchases  made  as  a  result  of 
reviews  and/or  editorial  comment. 

The  'Buyers'  Charter'  is  designed  to  safeguard  the  PRIVATE  individual  reader.  It  does  not  provide 
protection  to  any  companies,  societies,  organisations,  unincorporated  bodies  or  any  other  com¬ 
mercially  orientated  outlet  of  any  description.  Neither  is  cover  provided  for  orders  placed  from,  or 
to,  any  overseas  suppliers  or  for  goods  purchased  for  resale. 

CAVEAT  EM  PTOR 

Readers  are  reminded  that  the  M  ail  O  rder  Protection  Scheme  was  solely  implemented  to  pro¬ 
vide  protection  to  the  private  individual  when  goods  are  ordered  'Off  the  Page'  and  paid  for 
by  post.  It  was  not  designed  for,  nor  will  it  offer  any  protection,  in  the  event  whereby  goods  are  pur¬ 
chased  via  the  Internet. 

CREDIT  CARD  PROTECTION 

A I  ways  pay  by  credit  card  when  ordering  goods  valued  in  excess  of  £1 00,  thereby  ensuring  maximum 
protection  in  the  event  that  an  advertiser  ceases  to  trade  prior  to  such  goods  actually  being  received. 

DISCLAIMERS 

Readers  are  reminded  that  the  opinions  expressed,  and  the  results  published  in  connection  with  reviews 
and/or  laboratory  test  reports  carried  out  on  computing  systems  and/or  related  items,  are  confined  to, 
and  are  representative  of,  only  those  goods  as  supplied  and  should  not  be  construed  as  a  recommendation  to 
purchase.  Whilst  every  precaution  is  taken  to  ensure  that  reliability  and  good  business  practices  prevail, 
the  Publisher  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the  overall  trading  activities  of  any  supplier  referred  to,  or 
advertising  within,  this  publication. 


Purchasing 

Guidelines 

There  are  several  steps  you  can  take  to 
help  ensure  that  the  buying  process  is 
smooth  and  trouble-free.  We'd  like  to 
suggest  these  main  guidelines: 

KEEP  RECORDS 

When  you  phone  a  supplier,  make  a 
note  of  the  name  of  the  person  you  speak 
to,  and  when.  Note  down  any  claims  they 
make  for  the  product  in  which  you  are 
interested,  or  any  specifications  they 
mention.  If  you  are  unsure  that  what  they 
are  offering  is  right  for  the  task,  then  ask. 

GET  A  FULL  SPEC 
OFTHE  MACHINE 

Before  you  place  an  order  for  a 

machine,  insist  on  being  faxed  or  emailed  a 
full  specification,  detailing  all  components 
and  peripherals.  Check  what  is  included: 
for  example,  when  buying  a  printer,  are  all 
cables  and  cartridges  bundled?  If  you've 
used  a  review  in  a  magazine  to  guide  your 
decision,  make  sure  that  what  is  quoted 
matches  what  you  have  read.  Sometimes, 
machine  specifications  can  change  from 
the  model  sent  for  review. 

BE  CLEAR  ABOUT  SUPPORT 
AND  WARRANTIES 

M  ake  sure  that  you  get  a  warranty  that 
suits  your  needs  and  is  fully  detailed  in  the 
quotation.  If  you  need  swift  repairs, 
consider  paying  extra  for  an  eight-hour 
repair  service.  Also  make  sure  you 
understand  the  level  of  service  you  can 
expect  to  receive,  including  who  pays  for 
couriers  if  your  machine  has  to  be  returned 
for  repair. 

USE  CREDIT  CARD 
PROTECTION 

When  you  place  your  order,  use  a  credit 
card.  The  Consumer  Credit  Act  ensures 
that  credit  card  purchases  between  £100 
and  £30,000  are  covered.  Check  the 
address  to  which  the  goods  will  be  sent. 
Often,  if  you  buy  with  a  credit  card  you 
can  only  receive  the  goods  at  the  address 
on  the  card.  If  you  are  buying  over  the 
Internet,  make  sure  you  are  using  a 
secure  server,  sometimes  denoted  by 
the  prefix 'https'. 

SET  DELIVERY  DATE  AND 
CHECK  WHAT  IS  DELIVERED 

This  gives  you  some  comeback  if  the 

goods  are  not  delivered  on  time.  W  hen  the 
goods  arrive,  check  the  packaging  before 
you  sign  for  them,  to  guard  against 
damage  in  transit. 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  • 


GAMES  >  > 


« 


rn  nf  enf  <; 


Crimson  skies 


contents 


PREVIEWS 

452  Crimson  skies 
Rune 

GAMES 

453  Deus  Ex 

454  Grand  Prix 3 

455  M  otocross  M  ad  ness  2 

456  Dino  Crisis 

CROSSWORD 

457  Stimulate  your  grey 
matter  with  our  word 
and  logic  puzzles 

COMPETITION 

458  Win  a  PanrixPC! 

FLASHBACK 

459  Those  Octobers  of  years 
gone  by 

RETRO 

460  The  Acorn  Atom 


Rune 

Everything  you've  heard  about  the 
Vikings  is  true  if  Rune  is  anything 
to  go  by.  This  third-person 
adventure  game  puts  you  in  the  boots  of 
a  warrior  called  Ragnar,  who  is  intent  on 
finding  the  mysterious  force  responsible 
for  the  destruction  of  a  number  of 
villages.  H  is  adventures  pit  him  against  a 
selection  of  mean  humans  and  even 
meaner  monsters,  plundered  from  Norse 
legend  and  the  H  uman  H  ead  designers' 
feverish  imaginations. 

Based  on  the  Unreal  3D  engine,  the 
game  creates  a  deeply  textured 
environment  for  players  to  explore, 
which,  in  turn,  involves  combat  and 
puzzle  solving.  Although  its  camera 
angles  resembleTomb  Raider  you  needn't 
worryabout  your  view  being  obscured. 


Thegolden  ageofthe 
swashbuckling  hero  is 
about  to  make  a 
comeback,  if  M  icrosoft  and 
FASA  Interactive  have  their  way. 

Crimson  Skies  is  set  in  an 
alternate  1937  where  the 
Depression  and  Prohibition 
have  rocked  the  US.  The 
country  has  fragmented  into 
warring  nation  states  and, 
without  any  established  means 
of  interstate  travel,  real  power 
is  wielded  by  ruling  the  skies. 

You  play  Nathan  Zachary,  flying  ace, 
and  an  array  of  strange  and  fantastic 
aircraft  take  you  through  24  missions 
over  locations  as  exotic  as  H  ollywood, 

M  anhattan  and  H awaii.  Each  mission 
centres  on  a  primaryobjectivebuta 
number  of  secondary  objectives  can  divert 
your  attention.  So  you  could  go  head-to- 
head  with  a  heavily-defended  Zeppelin  or 
simply  blast  the  H  ollywood  sign. 

Although  your  character  is  part  of  a 
team,  the  game  unfolds  in  a  single-player 
mode,  with  your  mission  goals  frequently 
requiring  you  to  help  your  teammates. 
But  don't  befooled  into  thinking  this 


Jm 

>  a 

ft 

-M 

m  r  _ 

\  ' 

Should  Ragnar  be  cornered,  he  becomes 
transparent  so  you  don't  miss  a  thing. 

H  owever,  it  is  the  hand-to-hand 
combat  element  that  will  playa  key  role 
in  the  game.  Human  Head's  designers 
claim  it's  easy  to  grasp  but  hard  to 
master,  focusing  as  it  does  on  a 
combination  of  offensive  or  defensive 


is  just  another  flying  sim.  Its  'intuitive 
flying  system'  allows  players  to  concen- 
trateon  theart  of  dogfighting.  Although 
the  planes'  manoeuvrability  is  impressive, 
this  is  at  a  cost:  namely  the  in-game 
graphics  that  depict  each  location  within 
a  sparse,  sprawling  landscape  with  the 
minimum  of  detailed  structures. 

Crimson  Skies  will  appeal  to  people 
who  have  a  penchant  for  aerobatics 
when  it's  released  later  this  year.  Look 
out  for  a  full  review  in  the  near  future. 
www.microsoft.com/  games/ 
crimsonskies/ 

ANDY  STEWART 


stances  with  either  weapon  or  shield. 

As  Ragnar's  travels  progress  he 
acquires  bigger  and  better  weaponry 
along  with  runic  powers,  which  help  him 
as  he  hacks  away  at  h  is  foes.  After  a 
number  of  kills  his  bloodlust  reaches  a 
critical  point  and  sends  him  berserk, 
laying  waste  to  anyone  who  stands  in  his 
way,  before  returning  to  normal. 

The  game's  graphics  come  into  their 
own  during  thefight  sequences,  as  the 
localised  damage  feature  lets  you  hack 
off  parts  of  your  opponent's  body.  To 
add  insult  to  injuryyou  can  pickup  your 
foe's  severed  arm  and  soundly  beat  him 
with  it.  Promised  for  release  later  this 
year,  it's  not  for  the  faint-hearted. 
www.humanhead.com/  rune.htm 

ANDY  STEWART 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Deus  Ex 


A  game  that  combines  the  best  elements  role-playing,  adventure  and  first-person  shoot- 'em-ups 


Based  at  Ion  Storm,  Warren  Spector, 
veteran  designer  of  the  U  Itima  and 
System  Shock  series,  now  brings  us  the 
critically  acclaimed  Deus  Ex  At  first 
glancethisgameappearsto  bethe 
typical  first-person  shooter,  but  after  a 
little  gameplay you  realise  it  doesn't 
conform  to  onegenre.  DeusExmanages 
to  combine  the  best  elements  of  role- 
playing,  action  adventure  and  first- 
person  shoot-'em-ups. 

Set  some  50  years  in  the  future,  you 
take  on  the  role  of  JC 
Denton,  a  bionically 
augmented  agent 
working  for  UNATCO 
(the United  Nations 
Anti-Terrorist 
Coalition).  A  virulent 
plague  with 
supposedly  no  known 
cure  has  spread 
throughout  the  world, 
and  governments  are 
frantically  trying  to 
maintain  order. 

However,  a  cure  does 
exist,  known  as  the 
'Ambrosia  Vaccine', 
and  a  terrorist  group 
called  the  North¬ 
western  Succession 
Forces,  or  NSF,  has  recently 
hijacked  a  shipment.  This  is 
where  you  come  in,  tasked 
with  the  recovery  of  the 
vaccine.  As  you  dig  deeper  the 
plot  thickens  and  you  begin  to 
question  motives  and  the  trust 
you  had  in  friends.  Ifyou'rea 
conspiracy  theorist  orX-F/7es 
fan  then  you  should  feel  right 
at  home.  It  also  borrows 
heavily  from  The  Matrix  right  down  to 
your  long  black  trench  coat. 

On  installing  the  game,  you  must 
completetraining  exerc i ses  to  get  a  feel 
for  the  weapons  and  manoeuvres  you 
will  need.  You  start  off  untrained  in  a 
variety  of  skills,  such  as  computers, 
electronics,  lock  picking,  medicine, 
swimming  and  weapons  (comprising 
demolition,  heavy,  low  tech,  pistol  and 
rifle) .  You  need  to  collect  a  number  of 
points  before  you  will  beableto  use 
these  skills  well.  For  example,  if  you  begin 
using  the  sniper  rifle,  you'll  find  youraim 


interface  is  similar  to  the  one  in  System 
Shock2.  You  can  choose yourown 
appearance  and  selecting  your  gear  from 
an  unobtrusive  inventory.  Your  health 
status,  in  the  upper-left  corner,  can  be 
accessed  to  reveal  a  graphical 
representation  of  your  body's  bio¬ 
condition  as  well  as  the  state  of  your 
bionic  augmentation  implants. 

What  makes  Deus  Ex  so  addictive  is 
that  there  isn't  only  one  way  of  solving  a 
problem.  The  first  level,  set  in  Liberty 
Island,  New  York,  has  around  five 
solutions.  Your  environment  is  also 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 


PRICE  £39.99  inc  VAT 
CONTACT  Eidos020  8636  3000 

www.deusex.com 

SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium  II  300 
(Pentium  lll/AM  D  Athlon  recommended); 
64MB  of  RAM  (128M  B  recommended);  8M  B 
(16M  B  recommended)  3D -accelerated  DirectX 
v7.0a-compatiblegraphicscard;  DirectX- 
compatiblesound  card;  250M  B  of  hard  disk 
space;  four-speed  CD-ROM ;  Windows 95/98 


is  shaky.  Gain  more  experience  points 
and  you  will  soon  beableto  pick  off 
enemies  from  hundreds  of  metres  away 
handy  when  you're  clearing  a  route 
through  a  heavily 
guarded  area. 

You  control 
your  character 
through  a 
combination  of 
mouseand 
keyboard.  The 


interactive,  with  the  possibility  of  picking 
up  and  throwing  trash  bags,  to  practise 
your  aim  on  the  rats  and  pigeons. 

EnemyAI  (artificial  intelligence)  is 
also  responsive, 
with  NSF  guards 
spotting  any  rash 
movements  and 
being  prepared  to 
hunt  you  down  or 
raise  thealarm. 
Previous  meetings 
with  some  of  the 
characters  are 
also  remembered 
if  you  return  to 
see  them.  If  you  wantto  up 
the  stakes  there  a  re  four 
difficulty  levels. 

Graphics-wise,  Deus  Ex 
wasstableat  1,024x768  on 
a  GeForce256  and  566MHz 
Celeron,  but  we  met  with  the 
odd  dropped  frame.  This  is 
probably  because  the  game 
is  based  on  the  Unreal 
engine  that  is  optimised  for 
Glide  rather  than  Direct3D. 
The  only  real  issue  we  had  is 
the  darkness,  even  with  the 
gamma  on  max  The  music  is 
clear  and  complemented  the 
mood  of thegame,  whilethesound 
effects  and  voices  are  realistic. 

DeusExgetsthethumbsup  because 
it  is  difficult  to  leave  alone  -  the  sign  of  a 
quality  game.  The  bonus  of  playing  the 
game  in  yourown  way  also  adds  to  its 
appeal  and  longevity.  If  you  really  want 
to  get  immersed  and  don't  mind  missing 
out  on  sleep  then  you  can't  go  far  wrong. 

JALAL  WERFALLI 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  U 


GAMES  > 


GAMES  >  > 


Grand  Prix3 


You  won't  have  time  to  watch  the  accurately  modelled  tracks  fly  past  on  the  king  of  FI  sims 


Th  ere  a  re  f  ew  ra  c  i  n  g  si  m  u  I  a  t o  rs  t  h  a  t 
have  gained  the  kudos  of  Geoff 
Crammond's  Grand  Prix series.  In  fact, 
when  ex-world  champion  Jacques 
Villeneuvemoved  from  ChampCar  racing 
in  the  US  to  Formula  1  he  is  said  to  have 
learned  the  FI  tracks  by  playing  the  first 
of  Crammond's  Grand  Prixtitles.  And  up 
until  now,  GP2  has  been  considered  the 
best  FI  simulator  on  the  PC,  despite  its 
age  and  relatively  crude  graphics. 

Crammond 
has  been 
working  on  this 
updateforfour 
years  and  the 
attention  to 
detail  really 
shows.  FI  is  team 
of  programmers 
have  even 
worked  with  the 
Arrows  FI  team 
to  make  sure 
that  every 
aspect  of  the 
cars  and  tracks 
are  modelled  as 
closely  as 
possible  to  real 
FI  racing. 

Thegameis 

based  on  the  1998  season  and 
every  team  and  driver  is 
included  except  -  rather 
bizarrely-  M  rVilleneuve,  who 
had  to  be  replaced  byfictional 
driverjohn  Newhousedueto 
licensing  disagreements.  Also, 

Verstappen  has  been  chosen  as 
the  second  driver  for  Stewart, 
rather  than  Jan  Magnussen 
who  started  the  season  with 
theteam. 

But  the  strength  of  the  G  P  series  has 
always  been  in  the  way  you  can  tweak 
every  aspect  ofyourcar,  including 
brakes,  gear  ratios  and  aerodynamics. 
This  is  where  G  P3  really  sets  itself  apart 
from  the  rest  of  the  FI  pretenders.  It's 
truly  hardcore  in  itsapproach,  allowing 
you  to  perfect  car  setup. 

The  tracks  in  the  game  are  also 
amazingly  accurate- the  buildings  are 
expertly  modelled,  as  are  other  details 
such  as  trees  and  advertising  hoardings. 
The  circuits  even  contain  the  correct 


camber,  and  if  you  outbrake  yourself  and 
end  up  in  the  gravel  traps,  your  car  will 
throw  up  bits  of  gravel  from  the  wheels. 

One  of  the  most  important  additions 
in  GP3  isthe 
inclusion  of 
dynamic  weather 
conditions,  which 
can  range  from 
blazing  sunshine 
to  monsoons  and 


GP3  is  not  going  to  appeal  to  the  casual 
racing  fan  who  likes  arcade  thrills  rather 
than  simulation.  You  can,  of  course,  turn 
on  all  the  driving  aids  and  race  arcade 
style,  but  this 
proves  less  than 
satisfactory,  as  the 
computer  assist 
tends  to  make  you 
feel  like  a  passenger 
with  little  control 
over  the  action. 

Also,  you'll 
need  a  PC  with  a 
fair  amount  of 
grunt  to  get 

smooth  frame  rates  from 
the  game.  It  suffered  on  a 
450M  H z  Pll  with  a  32M  B 
TNT2  graphics  card,  but 
really  started  to  shine  on  a 
733M  Hz  Pill  with  a  32MB 
GeForce  DDR  card. 

It's  a  shame  that  after 
fouryears,  Crammond's 
team  hasn't  come  up  with 
added  gameplay  elements, 
such  as  a  career  mode 
where  you  could  start  out 
as  a  test  driver  and  work 
yourwayup  into  thetop 
seat  at  a  team  such  as 
McLaren  or  Ferrari. 

Flowever,  if  you  area  big  FI  fan  then 
this  is  simply  the  best  FI  game  ever 
produced.  It  certainly  dumps  on  what 
has  gone  before  it  this  year,  such  asEA's 
FI  2000,  and  from  a  great  height. 
Crammond  has  come  up  with  a  cracking 
title,  but  next  time  it'd  be  good  to 
include  some  extra  gameplay  elements. 

NIALLMAGENNIS 


the  weather  even  causes  adjustments  to 
be  made  to  ideal  driving  line. 

It's  often  said  that  FI  fans  only  watch 
the  races  for  a  chance  to  see  multiple  car 
pile-ups.  If  you're  one  of  these  people, 
you  won't  be  disappointed  with  GP3.  It's 
extremely  entertaining  -  if  a  little 
annoying  when  you're  doing  particularly 
well  -  to  clip  another  car  and  watch  your 
own  go  through  a  full  roll  with  wings  and 
wheels  flying  off  everywhere,  especially 
into  the  path  of  oncoming  cars. 

Despite  such  frivolous  entertainment, 


DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £34.99  inc  VAT 
CONTACT  Hasbro  Interactive 020  8569  1234 
www.hasbro-interactive.com 
SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Intel  Pentium  II 
266M  HzorAM  D  K6-2  (450M  HzPentium  III 
or  Athlon  recommended);  32M  B  of  RAM 
(64M  B  recommended);  2M  B  video  card 
(16M  B  3D  DirectX  7.0-compatible  video  card 
recommended);  DirectX  7.0-compatiblesound 
card;  Windows95/98 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


M  otocross  M  adness  2 


The  thrills  and  spills  of  motocross  will  have  you  glued  to  your  PC  as  you  test  your  riding  skills 


When  a  game  has  a  disclaimer  on 
the  loading  screen  that  states 
'the  bike  riding  depicted  herein  may  not 
be  realistic,  and  is  potentially  extremely 
dangerous  in  real  life'  you  have 
to  wonder  what  other  games 
thinktheyaredepicting.  Is 
0  uake  III  Arena  suggesting  the 
gunmanship  and  stamina  of 
the  characters  in  the  game  is 
real  and  accurate?  Somehow 
we  don't  think  so.  Regardless 
of  this  rather  odd  disclaimer, 

Motocross  Madness  2  (MM2) 
builds  on  the  surprise  success 
of  its  predecessor  and 
is  a  wickedly  addictive 
game  that  will  have 
you  glued  to  your  PC 
for  quitea  while. 

Oneofthemost 
favourable  aspects  of 
MM2  is  the  ease  with 
which  you  learn  to  play 
the  game.  The  controls 
are  easy  to  pickup, 
comprising  little  more 
than  accelerate,  brake, 
left,  right,  forward  and 
backward  leaning  - 
which  if  used 
incorrectly 
results  in  a 
back-breaking 
crash.  Stunts 
are  performed 
bymovingthe 
joystick  in  a 
specific 
direction  while 
holding  down 
oneofthestunt 
keys.  The 

controls  maybe  simpleto  master,  but  the 
game  is  not. 

MM2  has  various  gameoptions 
including  Baja  racing,  Supercross, 

Enduro  and  National  racing  and  theold 
favourite  Stunt  option,  where  you  watch 
your  rider  perform  ludicrous  stunts,  for 
which  he  scores  points  if  he  doesn't 
crash  on  landing.  0  ne  major  addition  to 
complement  its  predecessor's  race 
options  is  the  campaign-style  Pro-Circuit 
mode.  This  involves  working  your  way  up 
from  local  races  on  cheap  bikes  to  bigger 
bikes  and  more  challenging  races,  with 


tougher  opponents.  Along  the  wayyou 
earn  money  to  upgradeyour  bike,  as  well 
as  to  payyour  medical  billsfromyour 
inevitable  crashes. 


Baja  Racing  is  a 
checkpoint  race 
across  varied 
terrain.  The 
drivablearea  is 
absolutely  huge 
and  is  rendered  in  immaculate  detail. 

The  object  of  Baja  is  simple:  go  through 
the  gates  while  staying  ahead  of  your 
opponents.  This  is  a  lot  easier  than  it 
sounds,  as  you  frequently  tend  to  be 
leading  a  race  for  all  but  the  last  lap, 
when  suddenlyyou  see  your  victory 
hopesdashed  as  you  clip  thetop  of  a  hill 
and  find  yourself  sliding  and  scrabbling 
to  try  to  get  back  to  the  gate.  With  a  little 
bit  of  careful  navigation  you  can  ride 
your  way  to  victory  by  taking  the  route 
that  keeps  your  wheels  on  the  ground  as 
much  as  possible.  Of  course,  this  isn't  as 


much  fun  or  as  spectacular  as  taking  the 
route  with  the  most  jumps,  but  it  does 
see  you  installed  on  thewinners'  truck  at 
the  end  of  the  race. 

The  Enduro  Mode  is  similar  to  Baja, 
although  the  courses  are  situated  in 
quarries,  complete  with  mechanical 
diggers  and  helicopters,  or  with  their 
course-crossing  traintracks,  busy  roads 
or  flight  paths.  The  Supercross  races,  by 
comparison,  are  all  held  in  stadiums, 
and  are  accompanied  bytheroarofthe 
crowd  as  they  respond  to  your  every 
move.  In  early  games  this  is  more  likely  to 
betheunified  sharp  intake  of  breath  of 
thousands  of  people 
as  you  spectacularly 
crash  your 
motorcycle. 

National  races  also 
involve  purpose- 
built  tracks,  with 
tight  corners  and 
lots  of  big  air  jumps. 

MM2  is  a  highly 
addictive  game,  with 
spectacular  graphics. 
The  crashes  will 
make  you  smile, 
whiletheaddictive 
pull  ofwinning  will 
keep  you  playing. 
And  if  you  manage 
to  get  up  the  cliff 
face  edging  each 
game's  arena  and 
start  too  head  to  far 
out,  watch  outforthehilariouscannon 
sound  as  you  are  blasted  back  to  the 
middleof  thearena,  completewith  a 
whistling  bomb  effect  as  you  plummet 
earthwards.  MM2  is  a  quality  gamethat 
is  both  fun  to  play  and  looks  good,  too. 

SCOTT  MONTGOMERY 

DETAILS 

★★★★★ 

PRICE  £34.99  inc  VAT 
CONTACT  M  icrosoft  0345  002  000 
www.microsoft.com/games/motocross2 
SYSTEM  REQUIREMENTS  Pentium  II  233 
(Pentium  II 300  recommended);  64M  B  of 
RAM ;  8M  B  3D -accelerated  graphics  card, 
DirectX7.0-compatiblesound  card  (optional); 
200M  B  of  hard  disk  space;  Windows95/98 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  U 


GAMES  > 


GAMES  >  > 


Dino  Crisis 


0  nee  you've  mastered  the  unusual  viewpoints,  this  game  will  keep  your  pulse  racing 


trawl  back  through  the  level  to  retrieve  it 
-  and  you  can  only  save  a  game  at  set 
points,  which  makes  writing  clues  down 
doublyimportant. 

Graphically,  it 
was  a  mixed  bag. 
Whilethegame 
itself  was  perfectly 
passable,  we 
noted  a  definite 
'blockiness'onthe 
menu  screens  and 
other  occasions. 
Another  thing  we 
didn't  like  was  the 
apparent  lack  of 
anymouse control.  You  can 
configure  the  keys,  but  the 
PlayStation  legacy  is  that 
you'll  enjoy  it  a  lot  more  with 
a  gamepad. 

In  all,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  game  often  wrests 
control  from  you  for  the  sake 
of  the  narrative,  the  story  is 
so  enthralling,  if  violent,  and 
thegameplayso  pulse¬ 
pounding,  that  most  faults 
we  can  forgive. 
Once  you've 
worked  out  howto 
deal  with  the  weird 
viewpoints,  you 
can  start  to  enjoy 
the  cinematic 
elements. 

Suddenly,  creeping 
down  twisting 
corridors  with  your 
heart  in  your 
mouth,  listening  to  the  sounds  of  a 
dinosaur  on  the  prowl,  becomes  fun. 

MATT  WHIPP 


Third-person  adventures  have  always 
been  a  staple  of  the  PC  gamer's 
diet,  so  now  that  Dino  Crisis  has  been 
ported  from  the  PlayStation  to  the 
desktop,  we  were  keen  to  find  out  how 
well  it  had  survived  the  trip.  There  are 
two  main  modes  of  play.  You  can  either 
go  fora  timed  lizard  bash,  where  you  kill 
asmanydinosaursasyou  can,  or,  as  we 
did,  set  out  for  the  full  story. 

You  play  the  hot- 
pants-clad  female 
member  of  a  three- 
strong  crew  charged 
with  investigating  the 
whereabouts  of  a 
certain  Dr  Kirk  (not 
theJamesT  kind). 

You  have  good 
reason  to  believe  his 
recent  death  was 
faked  and  he's  up  to 
something  in  his 
research  labs. 

However,  it's  not 
onlythedoctor 
who's  been  putting 
in  the  overtime. 

There's  good  deal  of 
reptilian  activity,  too. 

In  the  best  tradition  of  another 
PlayStation  success,  Resident  Evil,  there's 
a  very  cinematic  aspect  to  this  game, 
along  with  a  suspenseful  soundtrack. 

And  although  there  are  plenty  of  cut 
scenes  around,  film-like  twists  are  woven 
right  into  the  gameplay.  This  is  a  bit  of  a 
double-edged  sword.  It  certainly  helps 
keep  you  locked  into  the  gripping,  if 
linear,  narrative  with  fear  in  your  veins  at 
every  turn.  On  the  downside,  it  makes 
you  stick  to  the  path  as  the  scenes  tell 
you  prettymuch  exactly  where  to  go. 

There  are  also  some  odd  camera 
angles  that,  whilethey'd  lookgood  as 
part  of  a  film,  mean  you  have  no  idea 
what  horrors  are  waiting  around  the 
corner  as  you're  looking  at  the  top  of 
your  head.  It  also  makes  figuring  out 
which  direction  you're  heading  a  little 
trickyand  you  mayfind  yourself 
accidentally  going  backthrough  the 
same  door  you  used  to  enter. 

When  you  do  encounter  a  member  of 
your  own  party  or  a  dinosaur,  again 
usually  accompanied  bya  set  piece,  it's 
tough  to  tell  when  the  cut  scene  has 


kicked  in  and  when  you  can  begin 
completing  your  next  task  or  start  filling 
that  lizard  with  lead.  So  keep  yourfinger 
on  theaim  keythroughout. 

The  monsters 
are  powerful  here- 
so  make  sure  you 
have  plenty  of 
room  to  backup 
or  somewhere  to 


run,  as  they'll  make  mincemeat  out  of 
you  in  a  corner  -  and  they're  big  and 
scary,  especially  when  theycrash  their 
heads  through  the  window  and  fill  up 
thewholeroom  orjump  down  from  a 
ventilator  shaft.  If  you  do  get  caught,  it's 
brutal  and  gory.  It  can  be  difficult  to  tell 
when  to  use  the  medical  kits  you  pickup 
along  the  way.  Theonlyhint  wehad  that 
our  health  was  low  wasthetrail  of  blood 
weleft  behind  usfrom  timeto  time. 

It's  not  just  fighting,  there  are  also 
lots  of  items  to  pickup,  puzzles  to  solve 
and  codes  to  remember  -  keep  a  pen  and 
paper  handy,  you'll  need  it.  There's 
nothing  more  annoying  than  forgetting  a 
vital  piece  of  information  and  having  to 


DETAILS 

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CD-ROM  (eight-speed  recommended);  1MB 
of  hard  disk  space  (650MB  recommended); 
DirectX-compatible  video  card 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Van  mail 

The  drivers  of  nine  vans  delivered 
nine  different  parcels  to  nine 
different  women.  Prior  to  the 
deliveries,  thevanswerein  a 
single  line,  with  van  number  one 
being  at  the  front.  Each  delivery 
was  made  at  a  different  time  from 
7.30am  to  11.30am  inclusive  in 
increments  of  30  minutes.  From  the 
following  information,  can  you 
determinethedriverof  each  van,  the 
item  or  items  in  each  driver's  parcel, 
and  to  whom  and  when  each  parcel 
was  delivered? 

Harry,  whose  grey  van  was 
immediately  behind  Jim's  van,  delivered 
theencyclopedia.The  white  van  which 
held  the  chocolates  for  M  rs  Redmond 
was  immediately  in  front  of  the  van 
driven  by  Bill,  who  made  his  delivery  at 
11am.  Thegreyvan  holding  M  rsjones' 
parcel  was  immediately  in  front  of  the 
van  holding  M  rs  Green's  parcel;  the 
former's  parcel  was  delivered  one  hour 
before  the  latter's.  The  parcel  of  CDs, 
whose  delivery  time  was  not  8.30am  or 
9.30am,  and  the  parcel  holding  the 
camera  were  carried  by  similar-coloured 


vans;  theformervan  was 
immediately  behind  the  latter  in 
the  queue.  M  rs  Smith's  parcel  of 
flowers,  which  was  in  a  black  van, 
was  delivered  earlier  than  any 
other  parcel. 

The  driver  of  a  white  van,  who  was 
two  vans  behind  the  hamper  deliverer, 
delivered  thejewellery  one  hour  before 
Arthur-  who  drovea  black  van  - 
delivered  M  rs  Gould's  parcel.  Dick'svan 
was  four  vans  in  front  of  the  white  van 
holding  the  chair;  the  latter  van's  delivery 
time  was  two  hours  later  than  the 
former's.  Pete  drove  a  black  van  (whose 
delivery  time  was  11.30am)  which  was 
four  vans  in  front  of  the  van  holding 
the  clock. 

The  van  holding  M  rs  Black's  parcel 
was  immediately  behind  thevan  driven 
by  Fred,  whose  delivery  time  was  not  9am 
or  9.30am.Thevan  that  held  M  rs 
Brown's  parcel,  which  was  not  delivered 
at  8.30am,  was  somewhere  behind  the 
van  holding  M  rs  White's  parcel,  which 
was  delivered  earlier  than  M  rs  Brown's. 
Don's  delivery  time,  which  was  not 
10.30am,  was  later  than  Sid's;  the 
latter  driver  did  notdeliverto  M  rs  Clark, 


and  his  van  was  somewhere  in  front 
of  Don's. 

Find  the  solution  to  thispuzzlefora 
chance  to  win  a  copy  of  M  icrosoft 
Encarta  Reference  Suite  2000. 

Send  the  answer,  along  with  your 
name  and  an  address  where  you  would 
like  the  prize  to  be  mailed,  on  a  postcard 
to:  PCI/I/  Prize  Puzzle  (October  2000), 

VNU  House,  32-34 Broadwick Street, 
London  W1A  2HG,  or  by  email  to: 
letters@pcw.co.uk. 

Answers  should  arrive  no  later  than 
20  September  2000.  Please  note  that  we 
DO  NOT  open  attachments. 

July's  Prize  Puzzle  answer 

The  solution  to  July's  puzzle  is  below.  A 
case  of  mistaken  identity  crept  in  last 
month  with  July's  winner,  C  H  odgson  of 
Stockport, 
being  credited 
as  the  winner 
ofjune's 
bra  in  teaser. 

G  Shepherd 
of  Chesterfield 
wasjune's 
winner. 


A 

B 

D 

C 

D 

C 

A 

B 

C 

A 

D 

B 

D 

B 

A 

C 

C 

D 

B 

A 

B 

A 

C 

D 

ACROSS 

12 

Restoration  of  lost 

7 

_ screen,  multiple  display 

data  (8) 

method  (5) 

13 

Snail _ ,  web  reference  to 

8 

_ function,  Postscript 

postal  services  (4) 

halftone  procedure  (4) 

15 

BASIC  command  returning 

9 

Tape  spool  (4) 

whole  numbers  (3) 

11 

Make  small  software 

16 

box,  computer  based  on 

changes (6) 

DEC  chip  21064  (5) 

19  Associating  a  symbol  with  its 
description  (7) 

20  Variant  of  a  language  or 
protocol  (7) 

23  Very  small  time  measures  (5) 

25  Resistance  unit  (3) 

26  Cutoff  part  of  an  image  (4) 

28  General  term  for  a  subroutine 
(8) 

30  Person  highly  respected  on 
WWW  (3.3) 

32  ET  seeki  n  g  sc  reen  saver  ( 4 ) 

33  Illicitly  gain  computer 
access (4) 

34  Lotus _ ,  organization 

software  (5) 

DOWN 

1  Emit  (oil)  (4) 

2  Handicapped  (8) 

3  Perform  surgery  (7) 

4  Pile  (4) 

5  Cringe  (6) 

6  Member  of  the  nobility  (4) 

10  Delegates  (7) 

14  Crook'sfalsename(5) 

17  MetricprefixforlOO  (5) 

18  Darkening  (7) 

21  Film-setting  (8) 

22  Join  up  (7) 

24  Periodic  (6) 

27  Easilycarried  (5) 

29  Manipulates  (4) 

31  The  Young__,  TV sitcom  (4) 


Each  month,  one  lucky  PC  W 
C  rossword  entrant  wins  a  copy  of 
the  C  hambers  21st  C  entury  D  ictionary. 
The  winner  of  August's  crossword 
puzzle  is:  A  Holland  from 
Hertfordshire. 

This  time,  it  could  be  you.  Send  your 
completed  crossword  to: 

‘PC  W  O  ctober  -  Prize  C  rossword', 
VNU  House, 

32-34  Broadwick  Street, 

London  W1A2HG, 
to  arrive  no  later  than 
20  September  2000. 

•  Please  state  clearly  on  your  entry  if  you  do 
not  wish  to  receive  promotional  material 
from  other  companies. 


Solutions  to  September's 
crossword 

ACROSS:  7  Split  8  Spot  9  Reel  11 
Tweaks  12  Recovery  13  Mail  15  INT 
16  Alpha  19  Binding  20  Dialect  23 
Psecs  25  Ohm  26  Crop  28  Function 
30  Net.god  32  Seti  33  Hack  34  Notes 
DOWN:  1  Spew  2  Disabled  3  Operate 
4  Stack  5  Grovel  6  Peer  10  Assigns  14 
Alias  17Hecto  18 Dimming  21 
Location  22  Connect  24  Cyclic  27 
Light  29  Uses  31  Ones 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  W 


BRAINTEASERS  > 


COMPETITION  >  > 


a  Panrix  700MHz 
Athlon  PC 


This  month,  we'vejoined  forces 
with  award-winning  PC 
manufacturer  Panrixto  offer 
one  lucky  PCl/1/  reader  the  chance  to  win 
a  700M  HzAthlon  PC  with  all  the 
trimmings 

Panrix,  a  frequent  PC  1/1/  award 
winner,  is  offering  one  fortunate  winner 
this  classic  PC  based  on  an  Athlon 
Thunderbird  processor. 

As  you  would  expect  it's  fully 
equipped  with  64M  B  of  memory,  an 
AGP  Cougar  graphics  card  and  a 
Creative  sound  card  to  producea  great 
visual  and  sound  effect.  Not  to  mention 
a  good  displayoffered  bya  17in 
ProNitron  monitor  and  a  10-speed 
DVD  drive  so  you  can  watch  all  your 
favourite  movies.  There's  also  an 
internal  modem  for  all  your  Internet 
travels. 

A  set  of  200w  PM  PO  speakers  adds 
to  the  goodies  offered  by  this  PC.  You'll 
get  peace  of  mind,  too,  with  Panrix's 
one-year  parts  and  labour  warranty. 

Established  in  1990,  Panrixhas 
developed  a  reputation  for  delivering 
outstanding  PC  performance  at 
competitive  prices.  Panrix's  range  of 
computer  systems  benefits  from  the 
most  advanced  technology  available  to 
provide  high  performance,  reliable,  user 
friendly  PCs. 

You  can  find  out  more  about  Panrix 
by  visiting  www.panrix.com,  or  ringing 
0113  244  4958. 

■  For  a  chance  to  win  a  Panrix  700M  H  z 
A  thlon  PC,  just  answer  this  simple  question 


and  follow  the  'H  ow  to  enter'  instructions. 

W  hat  speed  is  the  Panrix  PC's  DVD  drive? 

1)  8 -speed 

2)  10 -speed 

3)  12 -speed 

Creative  Labs  DVD  winners 

The  winners  of  August's  competition  are 
Richard  N  unn  of  Bury  St  Edmunds, 
Kenny  Sherratt  of  London,  M  ike  Fisher 
of  Bath  and  Caroline  Whiteof  London. 
They  each  win  a  Creative  Labs  DVD 
bundle,  including  a  Creative  PC-DVD 
Encore  8x.  Congratulations  to  all 
the  winners. 


Howto  enter 

Fill  in  the  coupon  on  the  left  and 
send  it  to  thefollowing  address  by 
30  September  2000: 

October  PC  competition 
P  ersonal  C  omputer  1/1/  or  Id 
VNU  Business  Publications, 

32-34  Broadwick  Street, 

London  W1A2HG 
0  r  email  your  name,  address  and 
daytime  telephone  number  to  us  at 

Please  state  in  your  email  if 
you  DO  NOT  wish  to  receive 
information  about  other  products 
and  services  from  VN  U  Business 
Publications  Ltd,  and  if  you  DO  want 
your  details  to  be  passed  to  other 
carefully  selected  companies  for 
marketing  purposes. 

♦  Competition  open  to  UK  residents  only 


Rules  of  entry 

This  competition  isopen  to  UK  readers 
of  Personal  Computer  W  orld,  exceptfor 
employees  (and  their  families)  of  VNU 
Business  Publications  and  Panrix 
PCI/1/  'sEditor  isthesolejudgeof  the 
competition,  and  his  decision  isfinal. 

N  o  cash  alternative  is  available 
in  lieu  of  prizes. 


PCW  October  2000  competition  entry  form 

Name: 

Email  address: 

Daytime  telephone  number: 

Address: 


Answer:  The  DVD  drive's  speed  is: . 

•Please  tick  here  if  you  DO  NOT  want  to  receive  information  about  other  products  and  services  from 

VNU  B usiness P ublications Ltd  □ 

•Please  tick  here  if  you  D  0  want  your  details  to  be  passed  on  to  other  carefully  selected  companies  for  marketing  purposes  □ 


l]  •  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000 


Chess  for  chumps,  a  PCW  machine,  and  Windows  95  puts  M  icrosoft's  monopoly  in  question 


20  YEARS  AGO 


October  1980 


September  1980's  issue 
had  focused  on  the 
world  of  chess,  with 
David  Levy  quoting  the 
findings  of  math¬ 
ematician  Claude 
Shannon:  that  in  the 
perfect  game  of  chess 
there  are  10120  possible  games  to  consider, 
which  means  it  would  takea  1980s 
computer  some  1090  years  to  decide  its 
first  move.  This  month,  however,  saw  a 
breakthrough  as  M  r  Levy  had  designed  his 
own  chess-playing  micro.  The  micro  was 
unique  in  that  it  played  with  itself  and 
could  be  tortured  into  revealing  its  next 
best  move  and  compelled  to  play  it  before 
you  died  of  old  age. 

The  cover  of  PC  1/1/  this  month 
featured  those  two  darlings  of  home 
computing,  the  Atari  400  and  800.  David 
Tebbut  gained  an  exclusive  look  at  what 
Atari  was  billing  as  a  new  generation  of 
computers,  aimed  at  home  users  who 
wanted  to  playgames  as  well  as  learn 
from  the  Atari's  audio-visual  capabilities. 
Both  machines  could  be  plugged  into  a 
television  and  programs  could  be  loaded 
from  a  cassette,  disk  or  cartridge. 
Powering  the  machines  was  the  6502 
processor  running  at  a  thrilling  1.8M  H  z. 

As  for  games,  the  addictive  Star 
Raiders  was  included  with  both 
machines.  This  was  similarto  manyStar 
Trek  games  available  at  that  time,  but 
additionally  boasted  a  three-dimensional 
view  of  space  and  the  opportunity  to 
reach  the  rank  of  star  commander. 


October  1985 

We  were  wondering 
whether  we  had 
received  the  ultimate 
accolade-  a  machine 
bearing  our  name?  No 
such  luck.  It  was  the 
latest  machine  from 
Amstrad,  known  as  the 
Personal  Computer  Word  Processor,  or 
PCW8256  for  short.  With  CP/M ,  a  disk 
drive,  256K  of  RAM ,  a  monitor,  Basic, 
Logo  and  a  printer,  this  was  one  bargain 
not  to  be  missed  at  £399  exVAT.  As  a 
CP/M  micro,  it  undercut  theOsbourne 
machines,  theWren  (if  you  could  get 
one)  and  the  Apricot  Fie,  leaving  our 
own  Peter  Bright  to  conclude  there  was 
little  to  criticise  about  the  PC  W8256, 
even  though  it  used  our  name. 


Have  you  ever  thought  of  your 
computer  as  a  living  entity,  capable  of 
thought,  movement  and  reproduction?  If 
so,  then  Geoff  Simons'  New  Life?  piece, 
exploring  artificial  intelligence,  would  have 
been  right  up  your  street.  Debating  the 
nature  of  intelligence  and  how  computer 
systems  could  be  regarded  as  emerging 
life-forms,  Geoff  analysed  the  arguments 
f o r  en ergy  intake  (electricity),  thinking 
(processing  information),  reproduction 
(computers  used  to  design  other 
computers)  and  human/ computer 
symbiosis  (try  attacking  an  important 
computer  and  you  will  probably  be 
arrested).  He  concluded  that  when  life  is 
seen  as  essentially  a  systems  phenomenon, 
then  computer-based  systems  would  be 
ableto  qualify  as  being  alive. 

On  a  lighter  note,  if  you  find  the 
ambiguous  definitions  derived  from 
today's  dictionaries  humorous,  you  may 
like  to  know  that  things  were  similar  in 
1985.  As  described  in  Chip  Chat,  one 
microcomputer  dictionary  explained  that 
I'm  leaving'  signifies  that  someone  is 
announcingtheirdeparture-  or,  if 
spoken  by  a  tree,  means 'Spring  is  near'. 

October  1990 

Two  important  names 
oftheera  werefighting 
it  out  on  thePCI/l/ 
cover.  A  new  low-cost 
PC,  the  PS/ 1,  from  the 
world's  biggest 
computer  manu¬ 
facturer  at  the  time, 

IBM ,  was  about  to  hit  the  market  and 
warranted  a  front-page  report  from  PCW , 
as  did  Amstrad 's  attempt  to  tackle  the 
corporate  market  with  its  PC3000  range. 

Unfortunately  for  IBM ,  PCI/l/'sSimon 
Rockman  was  far  from  impressed, 
concluding  that  the  PS/ 1  range  aimed  at 
the  home  market  in  the  US  and  the  small 
business  in  the  U  K  was  a  cheap  attempt 
to  broach  either  market,  dueto  its  fast¬ 
fading  processor  and  severely  limited 
expansion.  Simon  went  on  to  say  that 
no-one  who  knows  anything  about 
computers  would  buya  PS/1.  Amstrad's 
PC3000  fared  somewhat  better  under 
the  inspection  of  GuyKewney,  who 
concluded  that  the  20M  H  z  machine  was 
a  safe  and  reliable  bet  for  corporate  users. 

Graphics  cards  were  also  on  test  this 
month,  with  no  sign  of  any  current 
manufacturers  under  trial.  Instead, 
PCI/l/'sChrisCain  was  left  to  deliberate 
the  power  of  the  Video  Seven  V-RAM  and 


Paradise's  8514/a  plus,  among  others. 
The  Paradise  8514/a  plus  came  up  tops, 
dueto  its  superb  blitting  (a  graphics 
rendering  test)  and  reliability,  with  NEC's 
M  ultisync  Graphics  Enginecoming  in  a 
close  second. 

Finally,  PCW  interviewed  everyone's 
favourite 'boffin'  Sir  Clive  Sinclair,  who 
revealed  his  plans  to  build  a  super-bike. 
The  wafer-like  bike,  designed  to 
revolutionise  city  commuting  was  still  on 
the  drawing  board  at  this  stage,  but 
sadly  ended  up  travelling  down  a  road 
to  nowhere. 


October  1995 

Computing  on  the 
move  gave  PC  W  the 
cover  story  five  years 
ago,  when  we  put  15 
notebooks  equipped 
with  a  docking  station 
to  the  test.  With  20  per 
cent  of  corporate 
business  users  favouring  the  dockable 
notebook,  PCW  decided  itwastimeto 
debate  the  best  notebook  on  the  market 
combining  portableand  desktop  usability. 

A  number  of  established  names  took 
part  in  the  group  test,  with  Gateway  and 
IBM  receiving  Highly  Commended 
awards  and  Toshiba  stealing  the 
limelight  with  the  Editor's  Choice  for 
its  Satellite  Pro  400CDT.  Theonly 
notebook  ableto  boast  the  inclusion 
of  a  Pentium  processor  and  a  CD-RO  M 
as  standard,  theToshiba  was  priced 
at  £4,440,  which  was  expensive, 
especially  by  today's  standards. 

Like  today,  the  1995  PCW  team  was 
attempting  to  discover  the  best  way  onto 
the  Internet,  with  Wendy  Grossman 
providing  a  guideto  the  worst  and  best 
ISPs.  A  number  of  big  names  appeared  in 
the  review,  including  Demon  but, 
unfortunately,  many  never  sustained 
themselves  and  have  since  shut  up  shop. 
As  the  reliability  of  ISPs  remains  a 
controversial  issue,  it  was  no  wonder 
that  Wendy  refrained  from  awarding  a 
single  Editor's  Choice  and  instead 
provided  the  pros  and  cons  for  each 
service  under  review. 

Finally,  at  a  time  when  M  icrosoft's 
monopoly  was  still  firmlyin  placeClive 
Akass  reported  on  the  success  of  M  icro¬ 
soft's  Windows  95  in  resisting  an  anti- 
monopoly  suit,  when  the  US  Department 
of  Justice  deferred  its  investigation  to  a 
later  date  -  has  it  taken  five  years? 

CLAIRE  MORLEYAND  JALAL  WERFALLI 


Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000  •  U 


FLASHBACK  > 


RETRO  >  > 


The  Atom  that  started  it  all 


It's  the  micro  that  time  forgot,  thanks  to  that  pesky  Sinclair  chap  and  a  rather  steep  price  point 


Everyone  remembers  the  BBC 
M  icro.  Some  people  nod  in 
recognition  when  you  mention 
you  had  an  Acorn  Electron.  But  the 
Acorn  Atom  is  one  of  the  lost  treasures 
of  home-computing  history:  even  retro 
geeks  who  slaver  over  ZX80s  will  cock 
their  heads  and  make  a  funny  face 
when  you  mention  the  name. 

Acorn  Computers  was  set 
up  by  an  ex-Science  of 
Cambridge  employee  called 
Chris  Curry.  If  the  name 
Science  of  Cambridge 
doesn't  ring  any  bells, 
it  was  headed  by  one 
Clive  Sinclair. 

TheAtom 
wasAcorn's 
first  real  stab 
at  a  proper 
home  micro. 

It  was  released  in 
themiddleof  1980,  at 
around  thesametimeas 
Sinclair's  own  ZX80  appeared  on 
the  scene.  As  with  theZX80,  the  Atom 
was  available  ready-assembled,  but  also 
came  in  the  cheaper  kit  form,  which  was 
the  more  popular  option  for  your  typical 
computer  geek  of  the  time. 

In  many  ways,  theAtom  wasthedry 
run  for  Acorn's  BBC  Micro  (which  was 
originally  named  the  Proton)  and  the 
later  machine  owes  a  great  deal  to  this 
one.  Insidethecasetherelurked  a  6502 
microprocessor,  just  like  the  BBC's, 
except  it  ran  at  1M  H  z,  half  the  speed 
of  the  later  model.  Externally,  the 
appearance  was  very  similar,  although 
the  Atom's  case  was  considerably  more 
compact  at  245mm  deep,  compared  to 
theBBC's345mm. 

The  classic  typewriter-style  keyboard 
with  its  instantly  familiar  echoing  key- 
click  is  present  and  correct  on  theAtom, 
soldered  directly  onto  the  main  circuit 
board  rather  than  being  a  separate  unit, 
which  was  the  case  with  the  BBC. 

TheAtom'ssound  system  was  the 
most  basic  arrangement  possible:  a 
singleoutput  linefrom  the  8255PIA 
(peripheral  interface  adaptor) 
connected  directly  to  the  internal 
speaker.  Tones  had  to  be  generated  in 
software  by  switching  the  PIA  output  on 
and  off  at  the  desired  frequency. 


The  computer  did  have  a  design 
feature  that  wasn't  carried  over  to  the 
Beeb,  but  was  about  20  years  ahead  of 
its  time:  separate  video  memory.  The 
unexpanded  model  had  just  2KB  of 
RAM  :  512bytes  for  graphics, 
512bytes  for  program 
storage  and 


adaptor)  provided  two  I/O  ports,  one 
fora  printer  and  onefor  user  projects. 
Second,  you  could  add  internal 
expansion  Eurocard  boards,  produced 
by  Acorn.  These  included  a  network 
interface  that  allowed  sharing  of  disk 
drives  and  printers. 

It's  strange,  looking  back,  that  this 
superb  machine,  with  its  proper 
keyboard  and  awesome  technical 
specification  for  the  time, 
was  so  completely 


1KB  of 
execution 
workspace. 

Adding  extra  integrated 
circuits  in  the  appropriate  sockets 
gave  you  up  to  12KB:  6KB  for  graphics, 
5KB  for  program  storage  and  1KB  of 
execution  space.  But  that  was  just  the 
start  of  the  Atom's  expansion 
capabilities.  The  basic  model  had  a 
single  4KB  ROM  containing  Acorn's 
variant  of  BASIC  and  the  M  OS  (machine 
operating  system).  But  you  could  also 
add  an  extra  4KB  floating-point 
extension  ROM ,  which  gave  you  colour 
graphics  modes  to  play  with,  too. 

In  full  flight,  a  12KB  Atom  fitted  with 
floating-point  ROM  could  managea 
graphics  resolution  of  128x192,  with 
four  colours  excluding  blackand  white. 
It's  worth  noting  that  in  those  days,  the 
extra  11KB  of  memory  to  fully  kit  out  an 
Atom  cost  £175.  These  days,  that'll  buy 
you  192M  B  of  PC100  SDRAM  :  nearly 
18,000  times  as  much. 

There  were  two  more  internal 
expansion  possibilities.  Thefirst  was 
another  feature  to  find  its  way  into  the 
Beeb:  the 6522VIA  (versatile  interface 


overshadowed 
bythetiny, 
membrane- 
keyboard  equipped 
ZX80.  The  big 
difference  was  price. 
TheZX80  may  have 
been  totally  inferior  to  theAtom,  but  it 
was  far  less  expensive.  A  ready- 
assembled  ZX80  cost  £99.95,  but  a 
ready-made  12KB  Atom  cost  £330. 

Perhaps  the  second  factor,  one  that 
dogged  Acorn  right  up  until  its  demise 
two  years  ago,  was  its  inability  to  market 
its  products  effectively.  TheZX80  had 
full-page  ads  in  the  national  newspapers, 
whilethehumbleAtom,  well,  didn't. 

It  does  have  onefinal  claim  to  fame, 
though.  David  Braben  used  oneto 
produce  his  first  three-dimensional 
graphics  routines,  simulating  a  spaceship 
flying  around  in  a  starfield.  Those 
routines  eventually  became  Elite.  So, 
th  ree  ch  eers  fo  r  the  Aco  rn  Ato  m , 
the  micro  that  geekdom  forgot,  but 
whose  soul  liveson  in  theform  of  its 
illustrious  progeny. 

DAVID  FEARON 


•  Personal  Computer  World  •  October  2000